Stressful social environment and financial strain drive depressive symptoms, and reveal the effects of a FKBP5 variant and male sex, in African Americans living in Tallahassee.

A stressful social environment and material disadvantage increase depressive symptoms in the study population. Additional associations with FKBP5 and male sex were revealed in models that included both psychosocial and genetic data. Our results suggest that incorporating psychosocial stressors may empower future genetic association studies and help clarify the biological consequences of social and financial stress.