Edinburgh researchers involved in baby boomer cohort depression study

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh (Division of Psychiatry, Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Institute for Genetics and Molecular Medicine and brain imaging facilities) along with the universities of Aberdeen and Dundee, are involved in The Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally (STRADL) study.  More than 600 volunteers have already been recruited for this £4.7m study (funded by the Wellcome Trust) and the study is continuing to recruit.

Professor Alison Murray (study lead, Aberdeen) said: "Depression remains very complicated to diagnose. There is no simple set of criteria that allow us to identify those who are most at risk and how best to treat them. The STRADL study aims to reclassify depression based on biology. By gathering information such as brain scans, cognitive tests and other clinical measurements, we hope to be able to better categorise people and as such identify more specific areas to develop new treatments. The beauty of working with the Aberdeen children of the 1950s cohort is that we can compare the results of people who have depression and those who don't, not just today, but also from when they were in primary school. This helps us better understand why even when people who are exposed to the same risk factors in life, some are resilient and don't get depression, whilst others do."