Social connection is the strongest protective factor for depression


Date:
August 14, 2020
Source:
Massachusetts General Hospital
Summary:
Researchers have identified a set of modifiable factors from
a field of over 100 that could represent valuable targets for
preventing depression in adults. The team named social connection
as the strongest protective factor for depression, and suggested
that reducing sedentary activities such as TV watching and daytime
napping could also help lower the risk of depression.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have identified a
set of modifiable factors from a field of over 100 that could represent valuable targets for preventing depression in adults. In a study published
in The American Journal of Psychiatry, the team named social connection
as the strongest protective factor for depression, and suggested that
reducing sedentary activities such as TV watching and daytime napping
could also help lower the risk of depression.


========================================================================== "Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, but until now researchers have focused on only a handful of risk and protective factors, often in just one or two domains," says Karmel Choi, PhD, investigator in
the Department of Psychiatry and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health, and lead author of the paper. "Our study provides the most comprehensive picture to date of modifiable factors that could impact depression risk." To that end, researchers took a two-stage approach. The first stage drew on a database of over 100,000 participants in the UK
Biobank -- a world-renowned cohort study of adults -- to systematically
scan a wide range of modifiable factors that might be associated with the
risk of developing depression, including social interaction, media use,
sleep patterns, diet, physical activity, and environmental exposures. This method, known as an exposure-wide association scan (ExWAS), is analogous
to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that have been widely used to identify genetic risk factors for disease.

The second stage took the strongest modifiable candidates from ExWAS and applied a technique called Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate
which factors may have a causal relationship to depression risk. MR is
a statistical method that treats genetic variation between people as a
kind of natural experiment to determine whether an association is likely
to reflect causation rather than just correlation.

This two-stage approach allowed the MGH researchers to narrow the
field to a smaller set of promising and potentially causal targets
for depression. "Far and away the most prominent of these factors
was frequency of confiding in others, but also visits with family and
friends, all of which highlighted the important protective effect of
social connection and social cohesion," points out Jordan Smoller, MD,
ScD associate chief for research in the MGH Department of Psychiatry,
and senior author of the study. "These factors are more relevant now
than ever at a time of social distancing and separation from friends and family." The protective effects of social connection were present even
for individuals who were at higher risk for depression as a result of
genetic vulnerability or early life trauma.

On the other hand, factors associated with depression risk included time
spent watching TV, though the authors note that additional research is
needed to determine if that risk was due to media exposure per se or
whether time in front of the TV was a proxy for being sedentary. Perhaps
more surprising, the tendency for daytime napping and regular use of multivitamins appeared to be associated with depression risk, though
more research is needed to determine how these might contribute.

The MGH study demonstrates an important new approach for evaluating a
wide range of modifiable factors, and using this evidence to prioritize
targets for preventive interventions for depression. "Depression takes an enormous toll on individuals, families, and society, yet we still know
very little about how to prevent it," says Smoller. "We've shown that
it's now possible to address these questions of broad public health significance through a large-scale, data-based approach that wasn't
available even a few years ago. We hope this work will motivate further
efforts to develop actionable strategies for preventing depression." The study's two-stage approach could also be used to inform the prevention
of other health conditions.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Massachusetts_General_Hospital. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Karmel W. Choi, Murray B. Stein, Kristen M. Nishimi, Tian Ge,
Jonathan
R.I. Coleman, Chia-Yen Chen, Andrew Ratanatharathorn, Amanda
B. Zheutlin, Erin C. Dunn, Gerome Breen, Karestan C. Koenen,
Jordan W. Smoller. An Exposure-Wide and Mendelian Randomization
Approach to Identifying Modifiable Factors for the Prevention of
Depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2020; appi.ajp.2020.1
DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.19111158 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200814131007.htm

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