Interaction between genetic risk and childhood adversity in the development of psychosis and depression.

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Mental health problems such as depression and psychosis (e.g., schizophrenia) can be extremely disabling disorders and result in a massive cost for both the individual and NHS services. Greater understanding of what factors are involved in development and persistence of such disorders would assist attempts to prevent and treat them. One of the major factors thought to cause these disorders is an individual‘s genetic make-up but researchers have struggled to identify the exact genes involved in this process possibly because they have largely ignored the role of environmental factors. Therefore, I propose to investigate whether individuals who have a genetic risk (either positive family history or specific genetic variant) and have been exposed to potentially distressing experiences in childhood (severely beaten by or separated from their parents) are more likely to be diagnosed with depression and psychosis than individuals with only one or neither of these factors. To test this proposition I will analyse data from two different cross-sectional case-control studies: an ongoing study of psychosis patients and unaffected individuals from the same geographical area; and a completed study of depressed patients and general population controls that have provided information about their family and childhood history and given DNA samples.