TY - JOUR
T1 - Childhood maltreatment and DNA methylation
T2 - A systematic review
AU - Rubens, Mackenzie
AU - Bruenig, Dagmar
AU - Adams, Jessica A.M.
AU - Suresh, Shruthi M.
AU - Sathyanarayanan, Anita
AU - Haslam, Divna
AU - Shenk, Chad E.
AU - Mathews, Ben
AU - Mehta, Divya
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Child maltreatment (CM) encompasses sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic and family violence. Epigenetic research investigating CM has focused on differential DNA methylation (DNAm) in genes associated with the stress response, but there has been limited evaluation of the specific effects of subtypes of CM. This systematic review of literature investigating DNAm associated with CM in non-clinical populations aimed to summarise the approaches currently used in research, how the type of maltreatment and age of exposure were encoded via methylation, and which genes have consistently been associated with CM. A total of fifty-four papers were eligible for review, including forty-one candidate gene studies, eight epigenome-wide association studies, and five studies with a mixed design. The ways in which the various forms of CM were conceptualised and measured varied between papers. Future studies would benefit from assessments that employ conceptually robust definitions of CM, and that capture important contextual information such as age of exposure and subtype of CM.
AB - Child maltreatment (CM) encompasses sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic and family violence. Epigenetic research investigating CM has focused on differential DNA methylation (DNAm) in genes associated with the stress response, but there has been limited evaluation of the specific effects of subtypes of CM. This systematic review of literature investigating DNAm associated with CM in non-clinical populations aimed to summarise the approaches currently used in research, how the type of maltreatment and age of exposure were encoded via methylation, and which genes have consistently been associated with CM. A total of fifty-four papers were eligible for review, including forty-one candidate gene studies, eight epigenome-wide association studies, and five studies with a mixed design. The ways in which the various forms of CM were conceptualised and measured varied between papers. Future studies would benefit from assessments that employ conceptually robust definitions of CM, and that capture important contextual information such as age of exposure and subtype of CM.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105079
DO - 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105079
M3 - Review article
C2 - 36764637
AN - SCOPUS:85150396345
SN - 0149-7634
VL - 147
JO - Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
JF - Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
M1 - 105079
ER -