Gene-changing trauma and PTSD
Wired ran a piece this week about post-traumatic stress disorder that reinforced the epigenetic connection between experience and genes.
The study they reported on found that people who had been abused as children were likely to experience variations in a stress-related gene, and that people with those variations were more likely to experience PTSD if they were exposed to traumatic events as adults.
This is profound in two directions: first, because it identifies the genetic influence on PTSD (one of only two studies to do so). Second, because it shows the experiential influence on genes.
The results suggest that there are critical periods in childhood when the brain is vulnerable “to outside influences that can shape the developing stress-response system,” said Emory University researcher and study co-author Dr. Kerry Ressler.
Of course, given that several authors of the study have financial ties to psychiatric drug manufacturers, the obvious reaction is for them to identify a drug-distribution opportunity:
Ressler noted that there are probably many other gene variants that contribute to risks for PTSD, and others may be more strongly linked to the disorder than the ones the researchers focused on.
Still, he and outside experts said the study is important and that similar advances could lead to tests that will help identify who’s most at risk. Treatments including psychotherapy and psychiatric drugs could be targeted to those people, Ressler said.
I would hope that scientists in this area also use this profound information to explore more non-drug remedies. If the cause of the initial gene change is experiential, couldn’t the cure be experiential?
The statement about “critical periods in childhood” pre-defines the argument by suggesting that there’s this tiny window in which genes can be changed without drugs, and then after that it’s pills, baby, pills!
Let’s not limit ourselves. This study has dramatic implications across all aspects of human life. Our experience directly impacts our physical reality, which directly impacts our subsequent experience, and on and on.
What do you think about this research? Does it push any buttons for you?
