A new British study has identified for the first time a genetic region associated with major depression, which will help analyze the genetic roots of depression and the development of related therapies. Researchers at King’s College London and other institutions report in the new issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry that they have identified genes in a region of the chromosome called 3p25-26 that are associated with major depression through genomic analysis of more than 800 families of patients with major depression. There are about 40 genes in this region, so the next step in the study will be to continue to explore exactly which genes play an important role in depression. There have been previous studies exploring the relationship between depression and genes, but the important result of this study is that for the first time, the relationship between a genetic region and depression has been confirmed with sufficient evidence through a large-scale genomic analysis. And in the same issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, another independent group of American researchers published a study with the same conclusion, making the relevant results more credible. Jerome Breen, a researcher at King’s College London, said the results could help analyze the genetic roots of depression, although it will take some time to develop more effective depression therapies based on them, and it could take 10 to 15 years before they are put into practical use. The current study focused on patients with severe depression, so the relevant findings may not be suitable for people with mild depression. It is reported that about 4% of people suffer from major depression on a regular basis, and possibly up to 20% will be affected by major depression at some point in their lives. There is a lack of effective treatment for major depressive disorder.