Mental disorders, ancient HERVs and youth problems

According to research conducted, among others, at King’s College London, the human brain expresses thousands of DNA sequences from viral infections dating back hundreds of thousands of years, some of which contribute to susceptibility to mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. This is the so-called human endogenous retroviruses (HERV) constituting approximately 8% of the human genome. Until recently, it was assumed that these “ancient viruses” were simply junk DNA that did not perform any important function in the body.

Researchers from the University of Helsinki have shown that “mental disorders can be transmitted in adolescents’ peer networks.” Researchers suggest several mechanisms for the transmission of mental disorders among young people. This includes: normalization of disorders so that increased mental health awareness and susceptibility to diagnosis may occur. The next mechanism is direct interpersonal contagion, especially in the case of disorders such as depression. In turn, in the case of, for example, eating disorders, the disease may be caused by the social influence of peers, to which teenagers are particularly vulnerable.

In the United States in 2022, 7.1 million children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 were diagnosed with ADHD. That’s one million more people than in 2016. According to experts, that increase was not surprising because the data was collected during the pandemic, when children were experiencing increased stress, depression and anxiety. Moreover, awareness of ADHD is growing in society.