Ongoing (II): Recruitment and data collection ongoing
Purpose: BioMD-Y is a comprehensive biobank study of children and adolescents with major depression and their healthy peers in Germany, collecting a host of both biological and psychosocial information from the participants and their parents with the aim of exploring genetic and environmental risk and protective factors for major depression (MD) in children and adolescents. Participants: Children and adolescents aged 8-18 years are recruited for either the clinical case group (MD, diagnosis of major depressive disorder) or the typically developing control group (TD, absence of any psychiatric condition). Findings to date: To date, four publications on both genetic and environmental risk and resilience factors (including FKBP5, glucocorticoid receptor activation, polygenic risk scores, psychosocial and sociodemographic risk and resilience factors) have been published based on the BioMD-Y sample. Future Plans: Data collection is currently scheduled to continue into 2026. Research questions will be further addressed using available measures.
Piechaczek, C. E., Greimel, E., Feldmann, L., Pehl, V., Allgaier, A.-K., Frey, M., Freisleder, F. J., Halldorsdottir, T., Binder, E. B., Ising, M., & Schulte-Körne, G. (2019). Interactions between FKBP5 variation and environmental stressors in adolescent Major Depression. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 106, 28-37. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.03.025 Piechaczek, C. E., Pehl, V., Feldmann, L., Haberstroh, S., Allgaier, A.-K., Freisleder, F. J., Schulte-Körne, G., & Greimel, E. (2020). Psychosocial stressors and protective factors for major depression in youth: evidence from a case-control study. Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 14(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-020-0312-1