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Traumatic Stress and Human DNA Methylation: A Critical Review
Abstract
Animal studies have identified persistent and functional effects of traumatic stress on the epigenome. This review discusses the clinical evidence for trauma-induced changes in DNA methylation across the life span in humans. Studies are reviewed based on reports of trauma exposure during the prenatal period (13 studies), early life (20 studies), and adulthood (ten studies). Even though it is apparent that traumatic stress influences the human epigenome, there are significant drawbacks in the existing human literature. These include a lack of longitudinal studies, methodological heterogeneity, selection of tissue type, and the influence of developmental stage and trauma type on methylation outcomes. These issues are discussed in order to present a way in which future studies can gain more insight into the functional relevance of trauma-related DNA methylation changes. Epigenetic studies investigating the detrimental effects of traumatic stress have great potential for an improved detection and treatment of trauma-related psychiatric disorders.
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“One factor which has consistently been associated with differential DNAm is stress [2,3].”
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Large-scale integration of DNA methylation and gene expression array platformsPreprint
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Metadata
- Authors
- Vinkers, C. H., Kalafateli, A. L., Rutten, B. P., Kas, M. J., Kaminsky, Z., Turner, J. D., & Boks, M. P.
- Affiliations
- University Medical Center Utrecht (NL)
- Yale University (US)
- Maastricht University Medical Centre (NL)
- Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, Department of Translational Neuroscience, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Laboratoire National de Santé (LU)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Epigenomics
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2015-06
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 593-608
- ISSN
- 1750-1911 (ISSN-L)
- 1750-192X
- OpenAlex
- W1869592690
- Cited by
- 112
- References
- 89
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 1.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Epigenomics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Neuroscience and Cognition initiative from the University Utrecht
- VENI (451.13.001)
- The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
- Netherlands B rain Foundation Fellowship (F2013(1) -216)
- Brain Foundation Fellowship (916.11.086)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Keywords
- traumatic stress, DNA methylation, epigenetics, trauma exposure, prenatal trauma, early trauma, adult trauma, tissue type, developmental stages, longitudinal study
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Base Sequence, Humans, Molecular Sequence Data, DNA Methylation, Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Epigenesis, Genetic
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