GLAD:
The Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression study at King’s College London by Ramana McConnon The world’s largest ever scientific study into anxiety and depression is currently being undertaken at KCL. To find out more about this exciting research, The Nucleus interviewed the two lead researchers, Dr Gerome Breen and Professor Thalia Eley about the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) study.
What sets this study apart? The scale of this study is unprecedented in the field of anxiety and depression, both in terms of the number of respondents and breadth of information obtained from each one. The GLAD team hope for 40,000 people to sign up for the study, and each one will provide a saliva sample and complete a questionnaire regarding a wide range of topics, including: • Their symptoms • Their treatment history (both what treatments they have undergone and how successful each type of treatment was for them) • Environmental factors, such as lifestyle. The data obtained by these procedures will hopefully allow a wide range of questions to be answered. For example, should a future research team want to investigate how a specific panic disorder responds to a certain treatment type, the GLAD research data will be a ready-made source of information for them to draw from. The hope is that a large portion of the respondents will consent to taking part in future data-gathering activities up to four times per year, thus creating a large, stable research community to facilitate and accelerate future research in the field.
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What are the similarities and differences in causes and treatments for anxiety and depression? About 60% of people who have one of the conditions, have both – and this percentage only increases as the severity of the disorder increases. The genetic causes of the two disorders overlap by about 80%, but the environmental ‘triggers’ for both are quite different from each other. One of the goals for this study is to understand that relationship in more detail. The two disorders generally require different modes of treatment, with anxiety usually responding better to treatment than depression.
What is the extent to which one’s genes, as opposed to one’s environment, contribute to anxiety and depression? Despite the name, the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression study is focused on both genetic and environmental factors. It is thought that genetic factors play a 30-50% role in causing anxiety and depression, though genes and the environment can and do interact: environmental triggers can ‘switch on’ certain genes. Most previous studies have focused on either genes or the environment, but it is hoped that the GLAD study’s holistic approach can lead to increased understanding of the interrelationship between these varied factors. A side benefit of studies such as these, that recognise that mental illnesses often have a heritable component, is that they may help destroy the lingering stigma surrounding mental illness. Too often it is assumed that a mental illness sufferer should simply be able to ‘snap out of it’, or that their condition arose as a result of some
