Heavily Drinking In Teenage Years Can Affect Brain Function of Future Offspring

Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine performed a study pertaining to binge drinking in teenagers. The main purpose of this study was to explain that binge drinking in teenage years can massively affect the brain function of future offspring. The study determined that teenage binge drinking can change the on-off switches of various genes in the brains of offspring. Constantly binge drinking during teenage years can alter the brain functions of future offspring. This can potentially put offspring at a high risk for depression, anxiety, and metabolic disorders.

An experiment was performed using  adolescent male and female rats that were exposed to large amounts of alcohol comparable to seven binge drinking episodes. After they became sober, the rats mated and the females continued to remain sober as they were pregnant. The rats that were exposed to alcohol were compared to a group of rats that were not exposed to alcohol. Researchers examined the offspring of the rats that were exposed to alcohol and look at the genes in their hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a part of the brain which is involved in many functions, such as reproduction, stress response, intake of food, and the sleep cycle. Researchers examined molecular changes in the DNA that reversed the on-off switches in individual genes. The results showed 159 changes in the of binge-drinking mother's offspring, 93 changes in binge-drinking father's offspring, and 244 gene changes in the offspring of both binge-drinking parents. 

This particular study is the first of many that prove teenage binge drinking by either parent can cause many alterations in the nervous system of potential offspring. Although the findings of an animal model may not primarily translate to human, there are various similarities between the animal used for the study and human, such as metabolism of alcohol, the way the hypothalamus functions and the pattern and amount of alcohol ingested. I believe that people do not know what the long term consequences of binge drinking are. We should do a better job making people aware because it is hurting the further generations and it is not fair to those children. Innocent children should not have to suffer because of their parents poor decisions regarding drinking, binge drinking does not make anything better, in fact it just makes things worse, long term and short term.

Solid Data Linking Genetics and Depression

Recently, scientists have made an important breakthrough for one of the world's most serious and crippling illnesses. Originally discovered by a group of British scientists, a group in the US replicated the same findings in a completely separate study of people. It has been found that there is genetic variation, specifically in chromosome 3p25-26, in people who experience depression. In science, result replication is extremely hard to come by and if discovered, usually takes many years. This study is ground breaking because the same exact results were found by two isolated studies almost immediately.
Currently, around 20% of people experience major depression through out their lives, while 4% of people struggle their entire lives. It was even predicted by the World Health Organization that depression will, by 2020, beat out heart disease in being the number one most burdensome disease. The illness is very difficult to treat due to complexity and lack of understanding, but these results will help doctors and scientists to better understand and treat the disorder and in addition, will shape new and more successful medicine.

Being among the 4% of individuals who throughout their lifetime have and continue to struggle with depression, I am elated at this news. I believe that Major Depressive Disorder is one of the most misunderstood and downplayed illnesses in the world. There is so much taboo associated with mental illnesses and such a great deal that people without the disease do not understand. Seeing science progress and become closer to finding the genetic root of this disease is a step to better treatment, education, understanding, and lives.

Is depression genetic?

     Depression is a serious medical illness that is described as feeling sad, blue, and miserable. Most of this feel this for a short period. Clinical depression, or known as major depression disorder affect how one feels, thinks, and behaves that causes emotional and physical issues. Depression requires a long term treatment that can be treated with medicine or psychological counseling. There are a variety of factors that causes depression such as biological differences- people have physical changes in their brain, brain chemistry- neurotransmitters out of control chemicals controls depression, Inherited traits- depression is more common who have relatives with these condition, life events, or hormones. According to health line, “A person with a relative who suffers from depression is almost five times more likely to develop depression as well”.  Research has found a gene in multiple family members with depression. Scientist have found that about 40% of the people who have depression has a genetic link. People with depressed parents are siblings are three times more likely to have the condition. For this reason, it strongly suggest that it is an inherited illness. Studies have also found that women are about 15% more likely for the chance of hereditary depression compared to men. Many researchers have found that a combination of genes leads to the depression disorder. 

            Most of study on genetic depression is based on identical twins since they have the same exact genetic code. It was found that when one identical twin gets depressed, the other twin will 80% most likely get depressed. It is concluded that there’s a strong genetic influence since both twins become depressed at a high rate. Fraternal twins who share 50% of the genes do not have a high connection in depression. When one fraternal twin gets depressed, there’s only a 20% chance the other twin will also get depressed. 

Main Link: http://www.healthline.com/health/depression/genetic#OtherFactors3

Related Link:http://depressiongenetics.stanford.edu/mddandgenes.html

Genetics of addiction using Twin Studies

Using identical twins in genetic studies helps answer the question of nature versus nurture. This has become key way to study addiction. Scientists at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics (VIPBG) used data from thousands of identical twins and fraternal twins from all over the world to draw conclusions on the numbers they have. They conducted research on alcohol problems, depression, and nicotine addiction. Through their research they have found a link between alcoholism and ADHD and between nicotine and depression. Through the combination of mental health history, psychological interviews, and a spectrum of 7 common psychiatric and common addiction disorders the scientists have drawn conclusions that ADHD in a child makes them genetically liable toward alcohol problems. Through their studies in nicotine addiction they found that 80% of schizophrenics smoke. They also found that 20% of depressed people are smokers. Even though nicotine dependence creates a higher risk for depression the correlation between depression and nicotine addiction is significant. With an abundance of information research will continue to draw more lines genetically between addiction disorders and psychiatric disorders.

 http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-11-genetics-addiction-twin.html

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/topics-in-brief/genetics-addiction

The First Blood Test Which Uses genetic markers to diagnose depression in Teens

The problem with using the usual method of diagnosing depression in teens just based on symptoms is that teens is that most teenagers have mood swing in this age period. It's important to diagnose and treat it in teens because if untreated there is a higher chance of these teens getting into substance abuse, social maladjustment, physical illness and suicide.

The study subjects included 14 adolescents with major depression who had not been clinically treated and 14 non-depressed adolescents, all between 15 to 19 years old. The depressed and control subjects were matched by sex and race.



"Eva Redei's, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and lead investigator of the study in her lab tested the adolescents' blood for 26 genetic blood markers of depression which had discovered in her previous decades long research withwith depressed and anxious rats .  She discovered 11 of the markers were able to differentiate between depressed and non-depressed adolescents. In addition, 18 of the 26 markers distinguished between patients that had only major depression and those who had major depression combined with anxiety disorder" (Science Daily).

The blood test will not only be able to test for depression but also the subtypes of depression and therefore raises hopes of treatments tailored to each individual needs. I think this is great because the depression symptoms are a kind of a vague way of diagnsing the symptom and especially the subtypes of it.