Is Epigenetics the future?
I am continually reminded of a talk given by Joan Borysenko, a Harvard Medical School-trained cell biologist, licensed psychologist, and former researcher from Stanford University. Stanford is one of several institutions studying the multigenerational legacies of emotional states through the study of Epigenetics. What I learned, and what has more recently been well documented, is that a parent’s traumatic experience may be passed along to their children. Through this relatively new field of epigenetics, we are now learning, for example, that descendants of those having survived the Holocaust have different stress hormone profiles predisposing them to various anxiety disorders.
Researchers are looking at the visible and invisible marks on the survivors and their children. I remember as a child growing up in New York seeing tattoos on Holocaust survivors and wondering how they survived after the trauma. Now I understand that there is significantly more that is left behind; the next generation has inherited more than just a family history. They are also marked epigenetically with a chemical coating upon their chromosomes, representing a kind of biological memory of what the parents experienced. As a result, many suffer from a general vulnerability to stress. Previous research assumed that such transmission was caused by environmental factors, such as the parent’s child-rearing behavior. New research, however, indicates that this proclivity may have been also (epi)genetically transmitted to their children. Integrating both hereditary and environmental factors, epigenetics adds a new and more comprehensive psychobiological dimension to the explanation of the transgenerational transmission of trauma.
It's not only children of Holocaust survivors who are predisposed to such a burdensome legacy. Descendants of war veterans, war trauma survivors, childhood sexual abuse survivors, refugees, torture victims, and many others are all at risk of inheriting what their parents endured epigenetically. Moreover, the transmission may continue beyond the second generation and include grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and others as well. This process of transgenerational transmission of trauma (TTT) has been repeatedly described in the academic literature for more than half a century (Kellermann, 2009a). TTT refers to the process in which a trauma that happened to the first generation is passed on to the second generation. Such a process is deeply connected with the general theme of heredity – the transmission of characteristics from parents to their offspring. Despite more than hundreds of published studies, the research remains in its infancy. Scientists still cannot sufficiently explain exactly how the unconscious trauma of a PTSD parent can be genetically transmitted to a child or verify this idea with sufficient empirical evidence. Such a notion evades any simple and logical explanations.
Despite not yet fully comprehending how, scientists are still following and discovering epigenetic changes in various brain diseases, including mental illness and addiction. Imagine our being able to better understand and predict the potential of suicide, depression, drug addiction, eating disorders, child abuse, and numerous other generationally transmitted genetic modifications and then being able to take preventative measures at a young age. The incredible future of epigenetics and biomarker screening is no longer a dream…it is just around the corner.