A special prize from Estonian National Contest for University Students!

A special prize from Estonian National Contest for University Students!

We are happy to announce that Maarika Traat received a special prize of Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs! Her work “The Influence of the Dopamine Transporter Genotype and Childhood Family Relations on Depressiveness and Depression Based on a Longitudinal Study” was based on ECPBHS younger cohort data. The study investigated the role of dopamine in depression, focusing on the relationship between the polymorphism of variable number tandem repeats in the 3′ untranslated region of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1 3′UTR VNTR), the quality of childhood family relations and depressiveness. The study was a longitudinal health study: genotype data and information from self assessment questionnaires and psychiatric interviews were analysed. The genotype where both alleles of the gene contains 10 repeats was found to significantly increase the probability of higher depressiveness compared to the genotype where one of the alleles contains 9 repeats. Better family relations decrease the risk of depressiveness, worse relations considerably increase it. Lower quality of family relations also increased the probability of having been diagnosed with clinical depression by the age of 25. Statistical tests did not confirm the interactive influence of DAT1 3′UTR VNTR and the quality of family relations on depressiveness and the development of depression.