Hello. I am Dr Stephen Strakowski, from the University of Texas at Austin. Those of you who have seen any of my videos before know that this is a new location for me. I am here now as the founding chair and professor of psychiatry, where we are building the brand-new Dell Medical School. In future videos, I will talk about how we are thinking about building this new medical school, and how psychiatry plays a major role in its creation.
But today, I'm going to talk about something else: differences and similarities in managing unipolar and bipolar depression. This is a common clinical problem. Information has evolved over the past few years, and we are really starting to think about these two conditions differently.
Unipolar Depression: Incidence, Heritability, and Causes
Major depression is among the most common conditions affecting humankind. In the United States, about 7% of people will develop depression in any given year; there is around a 17%-20% lifetime risk.
The genetic risk for depression is relatively low among psychiatric disorders. Heritability runs in the 30%-40% range—meaning that in a collection of people, depression genetics explain only about one third of the variants. If the depression is recurrent, and commonly recurrent, however, the impact of genetics raises to about 66%.
Depression
Does Suicide Risk Show Up in the Blood?
COMMENTARY
A Guide to Treating Unipolar and Bipolar Depression
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD
DisclosuresNovember 14, 2016
Hello. I am Dr Stephen Strakowski, from the University of Texas at Austin. Those of you who have seen any of my videos before know that this is a new location for me. I am here now as the founding chair and professor of psychiatry, where we are building the brand-new Dell Medical School. In future videos, I will talk about how we are thinking about building this new medical school, and how psychiatry plays a major role in its creation.
But today, I'm going to talk about something else: differences and similarities in managing unipolar and bipolar depression. This is a common clinical problem. Information has evolved over the past few years, and we are really starting to think about these two conditions differently.
Unipolar Depression: Incidence, Heritability, and Causes
Major depression is among the most common conditions affecting humankind. In the United States, about 7% of people will develop depression in any given year; there is around a 17%-20% lifetime risk.
The genetic risk for depression is relatively low among psychiatric disorders. Heritability runs in the 30%-40% range—meaning that in a collection of people, depression genetics explain only about one third of the variants. If the depression is recurrent, and commonly recurrent, however, the impact of genetics raises to about 66%.
Medscape Psychiatry © 2016 WebMD, LLC
Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: A Guide to Treating Unipolar and Bipolar Depression - Medscape - Nov 14, 2016.
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References
Authors and Disclosures
Authors and Disclosures
Author
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD
Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical School, University of Texas, Austin
Disclosure: Stephen M. Strakowski, MD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
Serve(d) as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant, or trustee for: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion
Received income in an amount equal to or greater than $250 from: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion; Oxford University Press