Clinical-stage biotech Gate Neurosciences announced today it is collaborating with Beacon Biosignals for the use of its EEG technology to identify biomarkers of major depressive disorder (MDD) and other conditions to help advance its pipeline of drug candidates in neuropsychiatry and cognition. The first phase of the collaboration will tap…

Cells from individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) were found to have higher than expected rates of methylation at specific sites on their DNA, when compared to cells from healthy individuals without MDD, according to a multidisciplinary team of University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) scientists, in collaboration with others. Methylation…

The results of research headed by scientists at Japan’s Fujita Health University suggest that a metabolite in the kynurenine (KYN) pathway could represent a clinical biomarker for identifying individuals with depression-like symptoms who are at risk of developing major depressive disorder. The KYN pathway is the main pathway involved in…

Forty-four genetic variants, 30 of them newly-discovered, are risk factors for major depression, a global research consortium has concluded in a new study that essentially maps out the genetic basis of the mental health disorder. The Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium revealed its findings in…

A clearer picture of how post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) affect the brain has been provided by genomics, possibly pointing to new drug targets and biomarkers for these and related disorders. Researchers from McLean Hospital and colleagues used a multiomic database, single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq),…

Investigators from the University of Cambridge, reporting their findings today in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, say they have developed a new blood test to help accurately diagnose bipolar disorder. The researchers used a combination of an online psychiatric assessment and the new blood test that identifies biomarkers of the disease…

The largest genomic study on mood and psychotic disorders to date reveals some substantial differences in the genetics of how such disorders develop and are expressed in men and women. A multinational team of scientists has scanned approximately 200,000 genomes to show that although there is substantial genetic overlap between…

Differences in gene expression could help explain why major mental disorders that have similar genetic roots produce such different symptoms in those affected, suggest results from the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda. The researchers found that although people with conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive…

The largest ever study of gene associations in bipolar disorder has been completed by Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers and has identified 30 genome-wide significant loci, including 20 that are novel. More than 50,000 subjects in 14 countries and more than 200 collaborating institutions participated in this large-scale genome-wide…

Circadian rhythms are regular, daily variations in some of our biological functions and behaviors that are key to health and mental wellbeing. A research team at the University of Glasgow has now identified a potential genetic link between disrupted circadian rhythms and mood disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD) and…

Clinical categories for psychiatric disorders may need to be rethought, suggests a new study from the aptly named Brainstorm Consortium, a collaborative effort that accepted input from researchers representing 600 institutions worldwide. By pooling their data on hundreds of thousands of genomes, these researchers found genetic connections among distinct psychiatric…

It’s the first FDA-approved pill for postpartum depression (PPD), and thus a breakthrough treatment for the most common complication of childbirth. But the lack of an approval for major depressive disorder (MMD) put a big damper on Sage Therapeutics’ news about Zurzuva (zuranolone)’s pending launch. In February of this year,…

Links between genes in excitatory (EX) and inhibitory (IN) neurons and astrocytes were found through an international study of gene expression in post-traumatic stress and major depressive disorders (PTSDs and MDDs). The authors say it was the first study to analyze PTSD pathology at single-cell resolution and could lead to novel…

U.S. researchers have revealed a neurobiological marker to identify and treat major depressive disorder, after finding that the condition is associated with unusual brain activity. Altered signaling in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) of the brain, which has previously been linked with the processing of emotions, correlated with major depressive…

A key mediator may help explain why women are more likely to experience depression than men. A multi-institutional team found that regulator of G-protein signaling 2 (RGS2) was downregulated in stressed female mice and women with major depressive disorder. Overexpression of the protein restored social approach in stressed mice. The…