Genetic and Epigenetic Factors of Depression

Depression is a complex condition involving many environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors. Initially, genetic, and non-genetic studies were postulated as the major causes of depression. Depression affects people of all ages and is characterised by a wide variety of varied symptoms that are connected with the impairment of numerous psychological, cognitive, and emotional processes. Depression involves the influence of epigenetic inheritance. Epigenetic factors provide a completely novel dimension to therapeutic approaches as most diseases are not monogenic, and it is likely that the environment plays a major role. Changes in epigenetics mechanism, including deoxyribose nucleic acid methylation, histone modification, and microRNA expression may promote the advancement of depression in response to stressful experiences and environmental factors. Therefore, here we discussed the genetic changes and epigenetic pathways that may be factors in the development of depression, as well as how these changes may result in biomarkers of depression that are helpful for diagnosis and therapy.