%0 Journal Article
%T Moderation of Breastfeeding Effects on Adult Depression by Estrogen Receptor Gene Polymorphism
%A P£¿ivi Merjonen
%A Markus Jokela
%A Johanna Salo
%A Terho Lehtim£¿ki
%A Jorma Viikari
%A Olli T. Raitakari
%A Mirka Hintsanen
%A Liisa Keltikangas-J£¿rvinen
%J Child Development Research
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/290862
%X Breastfeeding is known to benefit both the mother¡¯s and the child¡¯s health. Our aim was to test the interactive effects between estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) rs2234693 and breastfeeding when predicting the child¡¯s later depression in adulthood. A sample of 1209 boys and girls from the Young Finns Study were followed from childhood over 27 years up to age 30¨C45 years. Adulthood depressive symptoms were self-reported by the participants using the Beck Depression Inventory. Breastfeeding as well as several possibly confounding factors was reported by the parents in childhood or adolescence. Breastfeeding tended to predict lower adult depression, while ESR1 rs2234693 was not associated with depression. A significant interaction between breastfeeding and ESR1 was found to predict participants¡¯ depression ( ) so that C/C genotype carriers who had not been breastfed had higher risk of depression than T-allele carriers (40.5% versus 13.0%) while there were no genotypic differences among those who had been breastfed. In sex-specific analysis, this interaction was evident only among women. We conclude that child¡¯s genes and maternal behavior may interact in the development of child¡¯s adult depression so that breastfeeding may buffer the inherited depression risk possibly associated with the C/C genotype of the ESR1 gene. 1. Introduction Depression is a major mental health problem in western countries, affecting working-age young adults in particular [1]. The etiology of depression is complex and involves genetic, neurobiological, psychological, and social factors. Furthermore, recent research has demonstrated that adult vulnerability to depression may have its origins already in early childhood [2], which emphasizes the value of life-course studies of depression. A large research literature has investigated the potential role of maternal behavior in the development of children¡¯s mental and behavioral problems. In particular, breastfeeding has been shown to have beneficial effects for children¡¯s physical health and cognitive development [3¨C5]. Emerging evidence suggests that breastfeeding might also have favorable effects on children¡¯s mental health. In a study on 5-year-olds, breastfeeding duration was associated with lower prevalence of children¡¯s mental health problems [6]. Other studies demonstrated that children who had not been breastfed in infancy had a higher risk for clinical depression in early adulthood [7] and hostility in adulthood [8]. However, genetic background may determine, in part, the sensitivity and responsiveness of individuals to environmental
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdr/2012/290862/