Project Summary

Jutta Joormann, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2006) of Stanford University, will investigate the mechanism that places children of depressed parents at elevated risk for depression and other emotional disorders. Dr. Joorman plans to compare daughters of mothers with recurrent depression who have not experienced a diagnosable disorder to a group of similar girls who are currently depressed and a control group of girls with no psychiatric history. All participants will undergo a laboratory stress-induction task, and endocrine response during recovery will be measured. Neural correlates of emotion regulation also will be assessed using fMRI. Further, Dr. Joormann will identify if the girls are carriers of the short allele of the serotonin transporter gene, which has been implicated in depression risk and in alterations of brain areas related to processing negative emotions. Dr. Joorman hypothesizes that high-risk girls (in particular, if they are carriers of the short allele) will have elevated cortisol levels during stress-recovery and reduced activation of brain areas involved in the modulation of emotion processing.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Unipolar

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