Katharina Buczek
The researchers then measured nearly twenty-eight million individual sites for methylation within the blood samples. Methylation is a well-known epigenetic change in which a DNA molecule gains a methyl group.
“Changes to DNA methylation can occur at different points in our lives depending on several factors, such as our development, age, diet, health habits, and other life circumstances– like trauma,” Aberg explained.
And the team found that their identified methylation changes correlated with participants’ reports of trauma exposure, including serious injuries, violence, and threatened risk of death. Then, using machine learning, the researchers were able to link the clinical data that was collected in adulthood to trauma-related methylation changes that were experienced during childhood.
This ultimately provided the team with methylation risk scores for various adverse consequences such as physical health issues, psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, social problems, and poverty.
Moreover, further analyses found that these risk scores could accurately predict a person’s health issues up to seventeen years after their trauma exposure. This finding is groundbreaking since it underscores how every single person experiences different impacts stemming from childhood trauma.
Additionally, the research team hopes this discovery of methylation biomarkers’ significance in regard to trauma could help with the early identification of those at risk for trauma-related health issues.
“If we can determine who is the most in need of preventative care, we can tailor their treatments and support networks to put them on the best path for recovery,” said Edwin van den Oord, the study’s lead author.
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in Molecular Psychiatry, visit the link here.
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