Korean Journal of Psychopharmacology  2014;25(3):91-100

Epigenetic Mechanisms of Early Adverse Experience in the Development of Depression.

Mi Kyoung SEO 1 ; Jung Goo LEE ; Sung Woo PARK ; Bong Ju LEE ; Jun Hyung BAEK ; Young Hoon KIM

Affiliations

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Keywords

Depression; Early life stress; Pathophysiology; Epigenetic

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

Depression is a common mental illness with a high lifetime prevalence rate in the general population. However, the pathophysiology of depression is still poorly understood. Recent studies showed that environmental factors can affect gene expression by modifying epigenetic factors. Early life stress (ELS) is likely a risk factor of lifetime vulnerability to stress and development of depression. ELS or stressful lifetime can induce changes in gene expression through epigenetic mechanism, such as DNA methylation or histone modification. In this article, recent researches on the epigenetic mechanisms of depression will be discussed.