Interpersonal violence and epigenetic modifications : the impact of prenatal and lifetime stress across three generations

Abstract

Exposure to interpersonal violence not only affects individual’s physical health and safety but also increases their risk of developing psychiatric disorders. Experiencing interpersonal violence during pregnancy may also impact subsequent generations, which is evidenced by an increased susceptibility to childhood and adulthood health problems in the children and grandchildren. Although the importance of the prenatal environment is well reported with regards to future physical, emotional and behavioral outcomes, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that mediate the long-term consequences of early stress across generations. Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, have been suggested to be an important mechanism that might translate pre- and postnatal experiences into biological correlates and ultimately into psychological outcomes. To what extent maternal psychosocial experiences of stress during pregnancy are associated with DNA methylation changes in a genome-wide level is still unclear. Furthermore, few studies have investigated the impact of psychosocial stress during pregnancy across several generations. Accordingly, whether psychosocial stress during pregnancy affects DNA methylation of the grandchildren is currently not known. The present thesis addresses these questions by studying the impact of interpersonal violence during pregnancy on the children and grandchildren in families living in a region with high levels of community and domestic violence. Associations of lifetime exposure to interpersonal violence and DNA methylation, as well as stress related-disorders were also investigated.