# Depression, Stress, and Down Syndrome. A Multimethod Approach to Assessment

> **NIH NIH K08** · VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $144,494

## Abstract

Project Summary
 People with Down syndrome (Ds), and other intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), are at
greater risk for stressful life experiences and depression than the general population, yet are less likely to be
diagnosed and receive appropriate treatment. The lack of validated assessment tools for this population is a
major impediment to research, diagnosis, and treatment of depression for people with Ds. The overarching
goal of this K08 proposal is to provide the candidate, who is a clinical psychologist, with the training,
mentorship, and research opportunities necessary to combine psychometric and genomic research
methodologies to study biomarkers of stress and depression in populations that are challenging to assess, thus
supporting the candidate's long-term goal of conducting federally-funded genomically-informed measurement
research in people with Ds and other forms of IDD. The candidate and mentorship team have created a
comprehensive training plan including coursework, intensive mentoring, summer programs, and conferences in
Ds-related developmental and psychiatric phenotypes, statistics, and epigenetic biomarkers. The
multidisciplinary mentorship team is comprised of leading experts: Dr. Colleen Jackson-Cook (clinical
cytogeneticist and medical geneticist; primary mentor), a leading expert in epigenetics and cytogenetics of Ds;
Dr. Ananda Amstadter (clinical psychologist; co-mentor), an expert in stress and depression; and Dr. George
Capone (co-mentor), an expert in Ds developmental phenotypes. The mentorship team is rounded out by Dr.
Accardo, board certified developmental pediatrician with expertise in developmental disabilities, and Drs.
Aggen, and York, who provide expertise in phenotype measurement, statistical genetics, and bioinformatics.
 The candidate will apply the acquired skills by conducting a multistage, multi-method measurement study
of stressful life events and depression in people with Ds. The first stage will involve the preliminary
psychometric analyses of self-report, caregiver-report, and clinical diagnostic data from a sample of 75
participants with mosaic Ds (mDs), whose higher cognitive and verbal functioning can provide a “window” into
the social and emotional experiences of people with Ds. This data will be used for measure refinement for
deployment in the second stage in which the refined assessments will be administered and validated within a
sample of 100 participants with complete (non-mosaic) Ds. The third stage will involve a comparison of
genome-wide methylation and telomere length in participants with complete Ds diagnosed with depression
(cases; n=25) and without (controls; n=25) to identify potential biomarkers of depression. Furthermore, the role
of stressful life events will be explored in the biological embedding of depression. The identification of these
biomarkers will not only complement the validation of patient-reported assessment tools, they may also serve
as cost-effective...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10129982
- **Project number:** 5K08HD092610-04
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ruth C Brown
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $144,494
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-04-10 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10129982

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10129982, Depression, Stress, and Down Syndrome. A Multimethod Approach to Assessment (5K08HD092610-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10129982. Licensed CC0.

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