Mental Health: Are the Answers in Our Genes?

We all have mental health. Mental health is our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. We can have good mental health, but unfortunately, we can also experience poor mental health, with 1 in 4 people experiencing mental health issues at some point in their lives. Increased understanding, awareness and acceptance around mental health issues has come from the hard work of advocacy groups, but also from scientific research. Scientists have been able to explain many aspects of mental health, including the biological factors contributing to poor mental health. One of these factors: our genes.

Scientists have long since discredited the ridiculous notion that mental health issues are caused because of a weakness in person’s character. Research has found that mental health issues are instead caused by a combination of biological, environmental and psychological factors. One of these biological factors is a person’s genetics, and twin studies have been used to show how genes may play a role: researchers have found that in identical twins (who share 100% of their DNA), if one of the twins is diagnosed with a mental illness, the other twin is more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness too, compared to non-identical twins (who like normal siblings, only share 50% of their DNA).  From these studies, scientists have shown that anxiety disorders, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), obsessive compulsive disorder  (OCD), and major depressive disorders are around 20-45% heritable; alcohol dependence and anorexia nervosa are 50-60% heritable; and bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are around 75% heritable. So now we know that genes do play a role in the development of mental health issues, but which genes are involved?

The reality is, there is no one gene that can be blamed for mental health issues. All these disorders are polygenic, meaning multiple genes work together to increase or decrease your likelihood of developing mental illness. What does seem to be the case, however, is that these many genetic variations associated with mental health issues, appear to change the way the brain is wired. The ‘vulnerability network’ hypothesis says that our genes influence the way our brains are ‘wired up’ in childhood, which make us more vulnerable to a range of mental health conditions in later life. One study looked at the genomes and neural connections or ‘wiring diagrams’ of 678 children. As mentioned previously, studies have identified multiple gene variations which increase likelihood of developing mental illness, and this study found that in the children who possessed these genetic variations, they expressed more variations in their brains neural wiring. These differences in neural wiring could cause inappropriate connections in the brain, which may affect how the brain responds to environmental inputs, for example mistakenly perceiving a neutral event as anxiety inducing; they could also impact its biological outputs, like producing too much adrenaline, etc. In this case, variations in genes have caused atypical neural wiring, which has changed the way the brain functions, which in-turn may increase the likelihood of an individual developing mental health issues.

Overall, the research into genetic variations, neural wiring, and their influence on mental health issues, has come a long way. This research has shown that mental health issues are not a sign of a ‘weakness in character’, or an individual’s inability to ‘suck-it-up’ but is instead due to a physical change in the brain, caused because of a variation in a person’s DNA. These findings have not yet translated into successful treatment for mental illness, but as this is an ongoing area of research, it is my hope that these treatments will soon be found.

Charities for mental health support:

The Samaritans - https://www.samaritans.org/

Mind - https://www.mind.org.uk/

Rethink - https://www.rethink.org/

Young Minds (for parents) - https://www.youngminds.org.uk/

 

References

https://www.disorders.org/conditions/genetics-and-mental-health/

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/looking-at-my-genes

https://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/78%284%29455.pdf

https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/news/genes-and-mental-illness

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201909/genetics-and-mental-illness

https://www.dnagyaan.com/genes-and-mental-health/

https://www.powerofpositivity.com/genetics-mental-illness/

https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health

Disclaimer

The information in this blog is for information and entertainment purposes only. I am not a medical professional, so I have never and will never give medical advice in this blog. You should always speak to a healthcare professional about your unique health needs. My opinions are entirely my own and do not reflect the organisations or people I work for. I only discuss published literature in this blog which are referenced with links.

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