title: Epilogue: Lessons from the CONVERGE study of major depressive disorder in China.
abstract: This review summarizes the first clinical reports from the CONVERGE consortium: China, Oxford and VCU Experimental Research on Genetic Epidemiology. CONVERGE sets out to investigate the nature and mode of action of the genetic and environmental risk factors for major depressive disorder (MDD). CONVERGE aims to collect 6000 cases of recurrent MDD and 6000 controls. The consortium includes hospitals in 30 cities, all with populations exceeding 5million, and has collected over 2000 cases and controls. High quality phenotype data on MDD collected in China is now available to determine the source and nature of this highly heterogeneous condition. Analyses reported in a series of papers indicate that the clinical features and risk factors of MDD are sufficiently similar to those in the West that we can confidently predict that the results of subsequent analyses will be widely applicable.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK. jf@well.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Flint
authors.forename: Yiping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shenxun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Kenneth S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Kendler
mesh_terms: D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype; D012008:Recurrence; D012307:Risk Factors