Depression is an enormous burden for those affected and their families. Unfortunately, parental depression is one of the most prominent risk factors: Children of depressed parents are twice as likely to develop a depressive disorder themselves. However, it is still unclear how the interaction between biology (e.g., genetics) and the (social) environment leads to this increased risk. To understand these effects, we will 1. establish a large cohort of parent-child triads (mother, father, child) to analyse transgenerational transmission, 2. identify common/specific environmental risk factors for each family member, 3. collect biomaterial (e.g., blood samples) to enable future (epi)genetic analysis and finally 4. combine all this data with MRI neuroimaging.

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