Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common but debilitating psychiatric disorder. Parental depression is among the most consistently replicated risk factors for MDD, with a number of studies showing that having one or more depressed parents increases the risk of depression in the offspring twofold to fourfold.
But a new Research reported in Brain and Behaviour provides evidence that Religious and Spiritual beliefs lower the risk of Depression even if the People have High parental depression risk.
The study investigated white matter microstructure and integrity in relation to religious belief and correlated this with different levels of familial risk for development of MDD.
The findings suggest that the reported high importance of Religious / Spiritual beliefs may have effects on white matter integrity in the bilateral frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and parietal lobe, particularly the bilateral precuneus. While these regions are also associated with risk of developing MDD, reorganization of white matter through Religious / Spiritual beliefs may help protect individuals from going on to develop the illness.
i-e Individuals at high familial risk for depression typically share a neural signature that is similar to the one that can be found in those at low familial risk, as long as they take Religious / Spiritual beliefs as highly important.
In a reddit discussion about this research, some People are saying that the reverse may be true. i-e People with that type of microstructure are more likely to be religious, rather than suggesting people get that type of microstructure from gaining spiritual belief.
