Increased depression genetic liability associates with inflammatory markers in multiple electronic health record systems
Abstract Although depression is a common disorder, its underlying biological basis remains poorly understood. The results of clinical lab tests available for research in electronic health records can be used to identify biomarkers that may reveal biological processes involved in the development of depression or may be markers of physiological changes due to depression. Here, we leveraged clinical laboratory tests and integrated biobank data to evaluate the relationship between genetic risk for depression and 315 routinely collected quantitative lab measures. Analyses across four health care systems (N = 382,452) robustly implicate increased white blood cell count as both a risk factor and consequence of depression diagnosis and revealed neutrophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes as the primary cell types responsible for this association. Our results highlight the importance of the immune system in the etiology of depression and motivate future development of clinical biomarkers and targeted treatment options for depression and its systemic effects.