‘C8 - Sunday News, November 29, 1981,

BOSTON (UPI) -
Researchers haye identified
the location of a gene that
could be responsible for
causing severe

depression suffered - by

hundreds of thousands, a -

report sald Wednesday.

The section of chromo-

some, traced in a group of

parents and their children, ©

could be used as a marker to
predict who is likely to suffer

Uniyersity of

long-term —

dependence, the report said.
Dr: Lowell Weitkamp,

Rochester
geneticist who led the study

published in the New
England Journal of
Medicine, said it is not

known how the section. of
‘chfomiosomie .is related to
° depression... x,

“But -we:.do know, we've -

now got a marker” to show

is ‘the possibility of jiden-

tifying within a family high-
risk individuals and studying...
them “psychiatrically ‘for

characteristics and‘ potential -

problems; he said. .
The type of depressed.
patient described in ‘the

study is. “not the person. who.

feels bad ‘because. something
bad has” happened in his
life,“ Weitkamp said.

term <-treatment with

_ counselingor drugs. A large

mumiber of these patients
commit suicide, Weitkamp
said.

, Weitkamp |

said con-

servative estimates place the .
-number of such ‘depressed

people in the United States
at 1 to-2 per cent of the

population, or. 200,000--to:,
400,000. More could. be™

° cooperating with °t

he
University of Toronto in
Canada, studied 20 families,
meémbers. of which were. all
at least 18 years old, One
parent in each family
showed symptoms of chronic
depression. The report said
the gene. was apparently
transmitted’ from the
‘unaffected parent and
combined with genes from

“spot on the chromosome

responsible for producing a
certain type of antigen.

_Antigens are proteins on the

surface of practically every
cell in the body and are part
of the body’s . immune
system.

The Rochester
Toronto

and
researchers
speculated the gene itself

susceptibility. to depression, |. The depression: under affected depending on the the depressed parent to might be involved in causing
severe depression and he said. ‘consideration, caused’ by a definition of depression prodiice depressed off- depression or it ‘might be
related diseases such ‘as “One of the- most useful combination of genes and used. spring. next door to ‘the genes.
alcoholism and drug. things that maycome from it environment, requires long- The researchers, The gene-was located ata

responsible.

na

orn +. - ae

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