Yale Researchers Identify Gene As Possible Cause Of Depression...

Avoid this Gene

Finding Could Provide Target For Future Antidepressant
Yale researchers have identified a gene as a possible culprit for depression and a possible target in the future for a new antidepressant. A study published Sunday in the journal Nature identifies the gene MKP-1 as playing a significant role in depression. The study's lead author, Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale, says that it could be a "primary cause" of the debilitating condition. The research team arrived at their findings after conducting genome scans on tissue samples of 21 deceased people who had been diagnosed with depression. Comparing those to the genome scans of 18 people who did not have depression, the researchers saw that the presence of MKP-1 was more than twice as strong in the samples of those who had been diagnosed with depression.