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piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Understanding Depression: Game-Changer Study Reveals New Clues About Genetic Risks
Last week, there was a major scientific breakthrough in our understanding of depression — one that can potentially revolutionize the treatment of this widespread condition.
Though it has long been suspected that depression (like many other mental ailments) runs in families, the hows and whys have been largely ambiguous. The age-old question of Nature versus Nurture has played a significant role in brewing up controversies about the disease. Is the offspring of a depressed mother at a higher risk because of his genes or because of her (assumed) inadequate parenting and a possibly cold growing-up environment? In other words, nature or nurture?
Much research has gone into finding a specific answer, but scientists have been bogged down by inconsistent findings. Which is why this particular study has caused such a flurry of excitement.
Scientists now know something concrete about the genetics of depression — the new study has identified 44 genes that contribute to the transmission of the risk of depression from one generation to the next. The multinational study is unprecedented in its scale and scope. Conducted by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium consisting of more than 200 scientists, the analysis took into consideration 344,000 controls to test more than 135,000 people with depression.
As the lead authors explain, this study marks a major step in understanding the "biological underpinnings of depression", which can be used to improve therapies, especially with regard to targeted antidepressant medications.
Another discovery the study has made is how the genetic basis of depression overlaps greatly with that of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
What does this tell us?
Prof Edward Bullmore has the answer:
"This is telling us that we shouldn’t be thinking about a black-and-white distinction between us and them, between depressed patients and healthy people: it is much more likely that our complex genetic inheritance puts all of us on a continuous spectrum of risk."
