Shorter sleep and depression: what role do our genes play?

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Nick Donnelly discusses how one’s genetic predisposition to shorter sleep is associated with the onset of depression in older adults.

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Does what you eat affect how you feel?

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Daisy Crick summarises a recent paper on the casual relationship between polyunsaturated fatty acids and depression.

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Cannabis use in college: genetic predispositions less influential than social environment

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Sally Turner reviews a recent study exploring cannabis use in college, which provides useful evidence relating to how universities could promote a sense of community, belonging and support to students who use cannabis.

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New genes implicated in Alzheimer’s disease #LetsTalkMentalHealthII

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Byron Creese writes a #LetsTalkMentalHealthII blog about a recent genome-wide meta-analysis which identifies new loci and functional pathways influencing Alzheimer’s disease risk.

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Higher body mass index is associated with a lower subjective wellbeing

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Benjamin Janaway explores a recent mendelian randomisation study that looks at the causal effects between subjective wellbeing and cardiometabolic health.

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Genetics of depression: understanding risk and improving treatment

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Douglas Levinson on a genome-wide meta-analysis of depression in 807,553 individuals, which identifies 102 independent variants relating to the genetics of depression.

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What can genetics tell us about the link between cannabis and schizophrenia? #MHQT

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Suzi Gage summarises a recent GWAS of lifetime cannabis use, which reveals new risk loci, genetic overlap with psychiatric traits, and a causal influence of schizophrenia. Interesting new evidence ahead of our Mental Health Question Time #MHQT event in London tomorrow.

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The genetics of depression (and anxiety!)

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Thalia Eley shares her thoughts on a recent Nature genome-wide association study of depression phenotypes in the UK Biobank, which uses different definitions of depression to provide more tractable targets for future genetic studies.

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Understanding the genetics of antipsychotic treatment response

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Marcus Munafo looks at a Chinese genome-wide association study that claims to have identified some of the genes associated with response to antipsychotic treatment.

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Psychiatric genomics: an update and an agenda

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Marcus Munafo comments on a review of the work of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, which in recent years has delivered an increasing flow of new knowledge about the fundamental basis of common psychiatric disorders.

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