Question:
I was wondering if clinical depression is genetic. My
grandmother has depression, my mother has depression,
my mom's brother is manic depressive, and one of his
sons is also manic depressive. With all these
connections it seems as if there may be a genetic
link. My grandmother was raised in a orphanage, and
none of her other siblings have depression. My mother
was raised when her parents were stressed and pressed
for money, but by the time my mom's brother got there
the family was financially stable and less stressed.
He runs his family different than his parents, and my
mom has been emotionally stable for years. I'm on
Celexa, and have been in and out of therapy since I
was six. So is it genetic or environmental? Is it
something that I will pass onto my children?
Thank you
for your time.
Dr. Heller's Answer:
Genetic factors play a role for many people with
depression and bipolar disorder, but it’s not an
absolute risk.
There’s a genetic depression that isn’t an official
diagnosis. These individuals describe being
oversensitive to rejection and criticism, difficulty
being happy, pessimism, and spending most of their
life between not quite depressed and not quite happy.
I refer to it as "fractured enjoyment"
in "BiologicalUnhappiness".
It’s sometimes referred to as
"dysthymia". I subsequently found that this genetic
depression was referred to as the "depressed
personality" by Dr. Emil Kraepelin in the 1920's.
The cartoon characters Eeyore and Charlie Brown are
examples. Prozac (fluoxetine) is remarkably
effective for this type of depression, which usually
gets profoundly better in 3-7 days. Other
antidepressants are rarely as effective as Prozac for
this genetic condition.
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