Posttraumatic stress disorder: Neurological, genetic, and epigenetic bases

Abstract

As we learn more about the consequences of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in terms of diminished quality of life, increased disability from the condition itself, as well as from other conditions that occur as a result of PTSD, and the increasing costs both economic and medical, the need to understand the cause of PTSD continues to grow. Given that no definitive genetic basis explains why PTSD occurs only in some individuals who face life-altering traumatic events, researchers began to examine epigenetics as a causative agent in the development of PTSD. To date, research on epigenetics and PTSD indicates an epigenetic explanation for PTSD. Such an explanation focuses on how the natural human resiliency allowing individuals to cope with traumatic events is diminished in those with PTSD based on either one traumatic occurrence or a series of traumatic occurrences that exceed their coping mechanism. Child abuse represents a trauma that affects how a child perceives their environment. Studies examining the epigenetic basis of PTSD as a result of child abuse demonstrate that child abuse is the type of trauma that elicits epigenetic changes that manifest themselves in the development of PTSD if the individual experiences a trauma as an adult. This chapter represents a review of the literature on PTSD, the underlying functional structures involved in its development, and an evaluation of the literature to date on both epigenetics and how PTSD develops in adults who suffered abuse as children.