ArticlePsychological medicine2020
Prospective study of polygenic risk, protective factors, and incident depression following combat deployment in US Army soldiers.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- The predictive value of polygenic risk scores for depression in gene-environment interaction studies: a systematic review.Translational psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Genome-wide association analyses identify 95 risk loci and provide insights into the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder.Nature genetics · 2024Pooled it
- Post-traumatic stress disorder: evolving conceptualization and evidence, and future research directions.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2025Article
- Assessing the psychometric properties of the Army STARRS' vertical unit cohesion scale: A large-scale, longitudinal study.Military psychology : the official journal of the Division of Military Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2025Article
- Parental depression and their children's marriage timing: The long-term consequences of parental mental disorders.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Article
- Body composition, lifestyle, and depression: a prospective study in the UK biobank.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Inhibitory control and mood in relation to psychological resilience: an ecological momentary assessment study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Stressful life events increase the risk of major depressive episodes: A population-based twin study.Psychological medicine · 2023Article
- Transdiagnostic biomarker approaches to mental health disorders: Consideration of symptom complexity, comorbidity and context.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021Article
- Polygenic risk scoring to assess genetic overlap and protective factors influencing posttraumatic stress, depression, and chronic pain after motor vehicle collision trauma.Translational psychiatry · 2021Article
- Ecological Momentary Mood, Resilience, and Mental Health Status as Predictors of Quality of Life Among Young Adults Under Stress: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- An Exposure-Wide and Mendelian Randomization Approach to Identifying Modifiable Factors for the Prevention of Depression.The American journal of psychiatry · 2020Article
- Physical activity offsets genetic risk for incident depression assessed via electronic health records in a biobank cohort study.Depression and anxiety · 2020Article
- Genomics and psychological resilience: a research agenda.Molecular psychiatry · 2019Review
- Resilience in Army STARRS: Evaluating psychometrics of a multi-dimensional resilience measure.Military psychology : the official journal of the Division of Military Psychology, American Psychological AssociationArticle
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWhereas genetic susceptibility increases the risk for major depressive disorder (MDD), non-genetic protective factors may mitigate this risk. In a large-scale prospective study of US Army soldiers, we examined whether trait resilience and/or unit cohesion could protect against the onset of MDD following combat deployment, even in soldiers at high polygenic risk.
methodsData were analyzed from 3079 soldiers of European ancestry assessed before and after their deployment to Afghanistan. Incident MDD was defined as no MDD episode at pre-deployment, followed by a MDD episode following deployment. Polygenic risk scores were constructed from a large-scale genome-wide association study of major depression. We first examined the main effects of the MDD PRS and each protective factor on incident MDD. We then tested the effects of each protective factor on incident MDD across strata of polygenic risk.
resultsPolygenic risk showed a dose-response relationship to depression, such that soldiers at high polygenic risk had greatest odds for incident MDD. Both unit cohesion and trait resilience were prospectively associated with reduced risk for incident MDD. Notably, the protective effect of unit cohesion persisted even in soldiers at highest polygenic risk.
conclusionsPolygenic risk was associated with new-onset MDD in deployed soldiers. However, unit cohesion - an index of perceived support and morale - was protective against incident MDD even among those at highest genetic risk, and may represent a potent target for promoting resilience in vulnerable soldiers. Findings illustrate the value of combining genomic and environmental data in a prospective design to identify robust protective factors for mental health.
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