NEUROLOGY
Genetic depression linked to increased disease activity in MS
Depression is a common comorbidity in patients with MS and is associated with increased relapse and disability progression
September 30, 2024
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A higher cumulative genetic burden for depression is associated with an increased risk for relapse and worsening disability in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), early results of a new study showed.Unlike the previous research, the current analysis used polygenic risk scores for depression, which summarize the estimated effect of genetic variants to determine the potential association with MS disease activity, so results are less likely to be explained by reverse causality.The findings were presented on at the recent 40th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis 2024 by researchers from the University of Manitoba, Canada.Depression is a common comorbidity in patients with MS and is associated with increased relapse and disability progression. Depression risk is partly polygenic in nature, involving numerous common genetic variants, according to the study lead author.The case-control study included 3420 relapsing-onset MS cases of European ancestry from four existing cohorts in three countries.The Canadian cohort included those enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study of psychiatric comorbidity in chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID), including MS; the Swedish cohort was an MS registry (SSReg) that encompasses 64 MS clinics (the cohort was split into two groups); and the US cohort was enrolled in a clinical trial of combined therapy with interferon and glatiramer acetate (CombiRx) in patients with MS.The median follow-up in these cohorts ranged from 3 to 5 years.Not surprisingly, most participants were women (from 71% in one of the Swedish cohorts to 83% in the Canadian cohort), and the age at MS onset ranged from 29 years in the Canadian cohort to 35 years in one of the Swedish cohorts.