University seeks participants for family depression study

12 December 2013 - With Christmas just around the corner, a time where people can face emotional difficulties, stress or isolation, a University of Sydney study of close relatives is set to shed new light on one of Australia's most debilitating illnesses. Depression affects one in six Australians at some point in their lives, and there are one million of us living with the illness right now. Depression causes a loss of over $3 billion in productivity every year, as well as misery, despair and sometimes even suicide. While treatment and support services are much better than they used to be, it's still not clear why people get sick in the first place. Pioneering new research authored by Professor Lea Williams and being run by Westmead Millennium Institute's Brain Dynamics Centre - a research affiliate of the University of Sydney - may help. The study is based on the fact that first degree relatives of people with depression have an increased chance of becoming depressed themselves. While shared environmental factors may play some role, studies have shown that shared biology is also likely to play a part.