ReviewHuman molecular genetics2020
Reviewing the genetics of heterogeneity in depression: operationalizations, manifestations and etiologies.
Review in Human molecular genetics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 87 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
87 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 162 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genome-wide genetic overlap between fear-based disorders and generalised anxiety disorder.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Incremental efficacy systematic review and meta-analysis of psilocybin-for-depression RCTs.Psychopharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Association between the triglyceride glucose index and depression: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Pharmacokinetic Markers of Clinical Outcomes in Severe Mental Illness: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Genome-wide Association Meta-analysis of Childhood and Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Enhancing Discovery of Genetic Variants for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Through Integration of Quantitative Phenotypes and Trauma Exposure Information.Biological psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Beyond Depression and Chronic Pain: Toward Understanding the Complex Developmental Pathways to Self-Harm.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Estimating direct and indirect genetic effects on emerging variation in depressive symptoms in early adolescence: a trio polygenic score analysis in the MoBa cohort : Author list.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- From Traditional Inspection to Quantitative Imaging: Tongue and Facial Color Features for Automated Machine Learning-Driven Depression and Schizophrenia Classification.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Polygenic scores in psychiatric research and clinical practice.Medizinische Genetik : Mitteilungsblatt des Berufsverbandes Medizinische Genetik e.V · 2026Article
- A Novel Polygenic Risk Score Indexing Somatostatin-Expressing Inhibitory Neurons Predicts Somatostatin-Expressing Cell Proportions and Severity of Symptoms in Late-Life Depression.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- The role of rare copy number variants in early-onset depression.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- A Personalized Medicine Approach: Psychosocial and Genetic Risk Assessments Predictors of Bariatric Surgery Outcomes After 3 Years.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Transcription factors Lef1 and Rest stimulate recovery from depressive states.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Symptom-specific genetics reveal heterogeneity within major depressive disorder.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Peripheral blood transcriptomic biomarkers for predicting antidepressant response in major depressive disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Aberrant resting-state functional connectivity in amygdala subregions among adolescents with depression and suicide attempts.World journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Environmental and genetic risk factors of depression converge on neuronal dysfunction driven by changes in cholesterol homeostasis.Developmental cell · 2026Article
- Disentangling depression in women with diabetes: evidence for measure-dependent associations with interleukin-4 and common inflammatory biomarkers.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The Digital Mental Health Study assessed feasibility of large-scale digital sensing for depression and anxiety.npj digital public health · 2026Article
27 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
With progress in genome-wide association studies of depression, from identifying zero hits in ~16 000 individuals in 2013 to 223 hits in more than a million individuals in 2020, understanding the genetic architecture of this debilitating condition no longer appears to be an impossible task. The pressing question now is whether recently discovered variants describe the etiology of a single disease entity. There are a myriad of ways to measure and operationalize depression severity, and major depressive disorder as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 can manifest in more than 10 000 ways based on symptom profiles alone. Variations in developmental timing, comorbidity and environmental contexts across individuals and samples further add to the heterogeneity. With big data increasingly enabling genomic discovery in psychiatry, it is more timely than ever to explicitly disentangle genetic contributions to what is likely 'depressions' rather than depression. Here, we introduce three sources of heterogeneity: operationalization, manifestation and etiology. We review recent efforts to identify depression subtypes using clinical and data-driven approaches, examine differences in genetic architecture of depression across contexts, and argue that heterogeneity in operationalizations of depression is likely a considerable source of inconsistency. Finally, we offer recommendations and considerations for the field going forward.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.