What role does epigenetics play in depression? | Epigenetics

What role does epigenetics play in depression?

Epigenetics plays a particularly important role in the development of psychiatric diseases. The activation and inactivation of certain gene sequences can lead to diseases such as depression and schizophrenia. Age and environmental factors that lead to altered epigenetic processes are probably also responsible for this.

Mental diseases are interdependent with human epigenetics. For example, it is known that mental stress leads to epigenetic changes that cause cell aging. Strong psychological stress in childhood also has a considerable influence on epigenetics, which can lead to psychiatric secondary diseases at a later stage.

Epigenetics in twins

Epigenetic research can be done very well, especially in identical twins. Although they have the same genetic material, they can exhibit significantly different external and internal characteristics over the course of their lives. These differences can be attributed to epigenetic changes caused by chance and environmental factors.

Even though each twin has the identical genetic material, only a few gene sequences are activated, which is due to the individually different epigenetics. At a young age, epigenetics hardly differ. With increasing age and different environmental influences, the differences become more obvious.

However, epigenetic imprinting is still present. This means that the probability of similar epigenetics with the development of epigenetically caused diseases in twins remains high.

What influence do environmental factors have on epigenetics?

According to current research, epigenetics is significantly influenced by advanced age, coincidences and environmental factors. The environmental factors can be of psychological and physical nature. Known negative environmental factors that cause a negative change in epigenetics are childhood traumas, stress, psychological strain or depression.

An unhealthy diet or harmful chemicals such as tobacco smoke or alcohol also exert a negative influence on the epigenetics of the genetic material. At an advanced age, various environmental influences can result in diseases of the psyche, the cardiovascular system and numerous other organs through epigenetic changes. However, the exact connections and modes of action in the genome have not yet been researched.