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. 2017 Aug 31;17(1):321.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-017-1484-y.

Genetics of depressive symptoms in adolescence

Hannah Sallis  1   2   3 , Jonathan Evans  4 , Robyn Wootton  5 , Eva Krapohl  6 , Albertine J Oldehinkel  7 , George Davey Smith  8 , Lavinia Paternoster  8
Affiliations

Genetics of depressive symptoms in adolescence

Hannah Sallis et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Despite many attempts to understand the genetic architecture of depression, little progress has been made. The majority of these studies, however, have been carried out in adults and do not account for the potential influence of development.

Methods: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) is a longitudinal pregnancy cohort which recruited participants between April 1991 and December 1992. Analyses were replicated in two independent European cohorts. Genome-wide complex trait analysis (GCTA) software was used to investigate SNP-heritability (h2SNP) of depression across adolescence, the role of puberty was investigated by stratifying these estimates according to pubertal onset. Genome-wide association studies were performed to identify genetic variants associated with depression at different stages of development.

Results: Heritability was estimated between the ages of 11 and 18 with sample sizes ranging from 3289 to 5480. Heritability was low with an apparent peak was found at age 13 (h2 = 0.17, p = 0.006). Confidence intervals around these estimates suggest an upper-bound to h2SNP of around 30%. A variant located on chromosome 7 was found to be associated with depressive symptoms at age 13 in ALSPAC (rs138191010: β = 0.142, p = 2.51 × 10-8), although this was not replicated.

Conclusions: Although power is a potential limitation, the observed patterns provide interesting hypotheses surrounding the heritability of depression at different developmental stages. We found substantially lower estimates for depressive symptoms at age 11 (0.07) compared to those previously estimated in adults (0.21). We also found a peak in heritability at age 13. These findings suggest environmental factors are likely to be more important in the aetiology of depressive symptoms in early adolescence than in adulthood.

Keywords: ALSPAC; Adolescent depression; GWAS; Heritability.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee and the Local Research Ethics Committees. Informed written consent was provided by parents of participants after receiving a complete description of the study at the time of enrolment. Parents could withdraw their child at any time.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Heritability estimates of depressive symptoms measured during childhood and adolescence in NTR and ALSPAC
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Manhattan plot showing associations from GWAS of SMFQ at 13 years
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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