New
Australian research, led by QIMR Berghofer Medical Research
Institute, has identified 509 genes that influence both
depression and anxiety - confirming a genetic relationship
between the mental health conditions.
The study
findings have been published overnight in the prestigious
journal
Nature Human Behaviour, and are the first to
identify so many genes that are shared between depression
and anxiety.
The senior researcher and head of QIMR
Berghofer’s Translational Neurogenomics Group, Professor
Eske Derks, said depression and anxiety are the two most
prevalent psychiatric disorders in the world and often
co-occur together in the same person.
“Not a lot has