Brain galanin system genes interact with life stresses in depression-related phenotypes

• Early and recent environmental stressors, such as maltreatment in childhood, or stressful life events in adulthood, are important risk factors for depression. Nevertheless, not all people who suffer from these will be depressed. The resilience or vulnerability to these stressors, and thus depression, is likely to reside in our genes. In the present study, we used different statistical methods to demonstrate that variations in genes for galanin and its receptors increase the risk of depression only in heavily stress-exposed subjects. The work was predicated on the finding that galanin expression is strongly stimulated by stress in animal studies. In humans, variation in galanin function would appear to be important determinants of the outcome of psychosocial stress.

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