Friday, 22 April 2016

Genes Are Inked To Happiness, Depression And Neuroticism

In one of the largest studies on the genes involved in human behaviour, a team of over 190 researchers from 140 institutions in 17 countries have found genetic variants associated with our feelings of well-being, depression and neuroticism.
The researchers, however, have advise caution when interpreting the results as genetic variants do not determine whether someone develops depressive symptoms, neuroticism or has a poor sense of well-being.

Dr. Alexis Frazier-Wood, assistant professor of pediatrics and nutrition at the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor and Texas Children’s Hospital, said: “In this paper, we applied advanced statistical analyses and meta-analyzed, or combined, results across a large number of studies, which is the most powerful way to conduct this type of genetics research.” “I served as the analyst for one set of data included in the overall results. We report that we found three genetic variants associated with subjective well-being — how happy a person thinks or feels about his or her life. We also found two genes harboring variants associated with depressive symptoms and 11 genes where variation was associated with neuroticism,” she further added.
“Genetics is only one factor that influences these psychological traits. The environment is at least as important, and it interacts with the genetic effects,” said Dr. Daniel Benjamin, associate professor at the Center for Economic and Social Research in the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and corresponding author.
The information in this report allows researchers to look at possible ways to study these conditions. “We can start studying the functions of these genes to begin to understand why biologically some people are more predisposed to feel this way than others,” said Frazier-Wood.
Journal Nature Genetics published the study.



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