What’s an actual way to prove that some disease/illness is genetics?

Question

I just don’t get why we blanket everything under genetics.. Can that actually be proven? For instance with depression, I often hear yeah it’s genetics, nothing to be done but medication. But if a parent raises a child while battling depression, how on earth would they be able to show up fully to be able to raise a healthy, emotionally supported child? If we know adverse childhood experiences and emotional neglect changes the brain, then how is it supposed to make the right amount of chemicals? So when it’s said depression is genetics, how did they actually prove that for instance?

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Answer 1

There are a lot of misconceptions here.
Just because a medicine is prescribed, DOES NOT mean there’s a genetic cause for the disease. Depression meds are often SSRIs which basically make serotonin in your brain last longer and serotonin helps regulate your mood.

Also, you have to acknowledge the intense complexity of genetics. I do research in genetics and it’s VERY difficult to associate genes with specific functions. We’re getting better at it and scientists have been able to find explicit markers for disease and identify the role of many genes. ‘Depression’ is a blanket term for a variety of disorders, and because it’s a mental health disorder, that makes it all the more difficult to find a biological basis for it.

And things aren’t just about genes. You don’t just gain “depression genes”. When we say there’s a genetic basis for something, that means there’s a mutation in the gene that’s causing some kind of abnormality which could be promoting the disease. It’s about how the gene is causing an underlying biological factor that is promoting depression. For example, one genetic explanation for depression of that maybe you have a mutation that causes you’re dopamine reward pathway to not work properly.

But what you’re saying about the whole environmental factors playing a role is very true. Which is why you’ll almost never hear an actual psychologist or dr tell you mental illnesses are genetic. Almost all scientists acknowledge that both environment and genetics play a role.