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Current Pharmaceutical Design

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1381-6128
ISSN (Online): 1873-4286

Childhood Maltreatment and Stress-Related Psychopathology: The Epigenetic Memory Hypothesis

Author(s): Pierre-Eric Lutz, Daniel Almeida, Laura M. Fiori and Gustavo Turecki

Volume 21, Issue 11, 2015

Page: [1413 - 1417] Pages: 5

DOI: 10.2174/1381612821666150105124928

Price: $65

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is all too frequent among western societies, with an estimated prevalence of 10 to 15%. CM associates with increased risk of several psychiatric disorders, and therefore represents a worrying public and socioeconomic burden. While associated clinical outcomes are well characterized, determining by which mechanisms early-life adverse experiences affect mental health over the lifespan is a major challenge. Epigenetic mechanisms, in particular DNA methylation, represent a form of molecular memory that may modify brain function over extended periods of time, as well as serve as a bio-marker of behavioral phenotypes associated with CM. Here, we review human studies suggesting that DNA methylation is a crucial substrate mediating neurobiological consequences of CM throughout life, thereby potentiating maladaptive behavioral patterns and psychopathological risk.

Keywords: DNA methylation, epigenetics, early-life adversity, childhood maltreatment, stress.


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