Predicting and preventing adolescent depression 2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Predicting and preventing adolescent depression 2
IRAS ID
161914
Contact name
Anita Thapar
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University Research and Commercial Division
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Depression is one of the most common health problems in the world. Unlike many other conditions, we do not know very much about what factors help improve depression, or what factors may make the condition worse.
Depression can sometimes run in families, but can also develop as a result of acute or chronic stresses and strains associated with everyday life. Most likely, depression is a condition that develops as a result of genes working together with stressful life experiences. This project proposed to examine how genetic and environmental risk factors work together within a high-risk sample of children of parents with recurrent depression and will now add lab-based genetic data to previous analysis.
As part of a previous longitudinal study at Cardiff University ("Predicting and Preventing Adolescent Depression”), we examined factors that increase or reduce risk for depression or other mental health problems across the course of adolescence. As part of this study saliva samples were collected from participants, at each assessment point (3 times over a 4 year period)and DNA was extracted. Participants consented for these DNA samples to be stored and used for future ethically approved research.
The current study proposes to process the existing DNA samples to generate genetic data to further examine the interplay between environmental and genetic risk factors for the development of psychopathology in children and adolescents.REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/2027
Date of REC Opinion
4 Nov 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion