TEDS 26: A longitudinal genetic approach to understanding the development and intergenerational transmission of common mental health conditions

The statistics for depression and anxiety in our young people are shocking. Over one-third experience these conditions and rates are rising, particularly in young women. Anxiety and depressive disorders are highly debilitating, disrupt education, reduce normal work capacity and dramatically increase suicide risk. Despite this, <£2 is spent per person per year on research into understanding them. Anxiety and depression also have very complex relationships with physical health conditions, with growing evidence for bidirectional effects, and putative sub-types of depression with specific physical health profiles. This complex picture is made even worse by the stigma which still surrounds these conditions, so many people do not seek help, or if they do, they do so for physical rather than psychological concerns. This backdrop means we know much less than we need to about how anxiety and depression develop, who is most at risk, when and how these conditions influence and are influenced by physical health concerns, and which factors drive treatment seeking and more general health service use.

Furthermore, despite having known for centuries that anxiety and depression "run in families" we know very little about which factors lead to the child of a parent with anxiety or depression developing that condition themselves. This question is of key importance to many young people experiencing anxiety and depression.

Our overarching aim is to transform our ability to predict who is at risk of anxiety and/or depression in their mid-twenties and our understanding of how related traits are transmitted from one generation to the next. Our findings will allow us to specify for whom and when to intervene to disrupt the development and intergenerational cycle of these conditions.

To address this aim, we will undertake three sets of new data collection with participants of the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). TEDS has followed twins born in England and Wales...