Depressive Symptoms Tie-up With Your Ability to Live a Fulfilling Life

Sri Lankan twin study finds the influence of genetics and environmental factors in depressive symptoms associated with health-related quality of life.

One-third of variation in depressive symptoms is genetic; two-thirds are environmentally influenced, and symptoms have a strong association with health-related quality of life, according to a study published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Health-related quality of life (HRQL) describes the impact of perceived health status on daily social and physical functioning. These measures in healthcare provide a more person-centered evaluation of the impact of chronic physical conditions and the effects of treatment.

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‘Depressive symptoms showed moderate genetic (33%) and strong nonshared environmental influences (67%) related to the quality of life.’

Yet, even in the absence of physical problems, individuals may report pain and fatigue, impairing their daily activities, which is the case with depression.

A similar pattern between severity of depressive symptoms (i.e., low mood, loss of pleasure) and poor HRQL has been observed in healthy, general population samples, suggesting that the absence of a diagnosis of a physical or emotional condition does not necessarily imply good health.

Studies have shown that the association between depressive symptoms and HRQL might be attributed to a shared genetic etiology.

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One method of exploring genetic etiology is the twin design, which estimates the extent to which genetic and environmental factors explain the variation in depressive symptoms.

To explore more, a new study studied the phenotypic and aetiological relationship between depressive symptoms and HRQL and possible sex differences in a low-middle-income Sri Lankan population.

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The data for 3,948 participants came from the Colombo Twin and Singleton Follow-up Study. Using self-report measures of depressive symptoms and HRQL, researchers conducted analyses.

The results showed that a nonshared environment accounted for the majority of variation in all the subscales of HRQL (ranging from 68 to 93%), alongside small genetic influences (ranging from 0 to 23%) and shared environmental influences (ranging from 0 to 28%).

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Genetic influences were significant for emotional wellbeing (23%). Shared environmental influences were significant for four out of the eight HRQL variables (ranging from 22–28%), and they were more prominent in females than males.

Depressive symptoms were significantly associated with lower HRQL scores. These correlations were mostly explained by overlapping nonshared environmental effects. For traits related to emotional functioning, substantial overlapping genetic influences were detected.

This study confirmed previous findings of a negative association between depressive symptoms and HRQL. However, some etiological factors of HRQL differed from Western studies, particularly regarding the effects of shared environment.

These findings also highlight the importance of cross-cultural research in understanding associations between psychological wellbeing and HRQL.

Source-Medindia