First-degree relatives are 9 times more likely to develop a serious form of depression, study says – CTV
April 9, 2024
Close relatives of people with treatment-resistant depression are nine times more likely to develop depression that also does not respond to traditional treatment, a new study found.
For people with treatment-resistant depression, also known as TRD, standard treatments such as psychiatric therapy and antidepressants may not work well, if at all. A person can be diagnosed with TRD after two rounds of different antidepressants fail to ease their symptoms.
The study is the first and largest to use an entire country’s data to confirm genetic transmission of TRD across families and an association with other major psychiatric disorders, said senior author Dr. Cheng-Ta Li, a professor of medicine at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taipei, Taiwan.
