In this article, the concept introduced by Lyman Wynne, that the individual develops epigenetically within the family system, is discussed and validated with data from a study of the characteristics and relationships of 27 women with borderline personality disorder and their parents. Each stage of the epigenetic process is impaired in one way or another, adversely affecting subsequent stages.
The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry
Functional capacities, such as attachment and affect regulation, object relations capacity, symbolic function and language development, now documented by neuroscientific research and epigenetics, are reviewed. Results from this research, together with other factors, are posited to have contributed to effective contemporary psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic treatments for the psychoses and schizophrenias.
Recent evidence suggests that covalent modifications to the genomic platform in the brain, that is DNA and its surrounding histones, provide a stable potentially lifelong mechanism for remembrance. Consequently, the making and unmaking of memories is accessible through pharmacological manipulations of these modifications. This has implications for psychotherapy and long-term rehabilitation of CNS disorders. We hypothesize that by enhancing learning through pharmacologically manipulating 'epigenetic' parameters, the effects of psychotherapies and rehabilitation can be enhanced.
A principal weakness of evidence-based psychiatry is that it does not account for the individual variability in therapeutic response among individuals with the same diagnosis. The aim of personalized psychiatry is to remediate this shortcoming and to use predictors to select treatment that is most likely to be beneficial for an individual. This article reviews the evidence that genetic variation, environmental exposures, and gene-environment interactions shape mental illness and influence treatment outcomes, with a primary focus on depression.
International Review of Psychiatry (Abingdon, England)
The Salutogenesis theory and its essential component, the sense of coherence (SOC) is an epigenetic concept. The SOC was defined as a 'way of being in the world'. As such it is most important that one's SOC will be intact for healthy mental status. Collisions between western and non-western cultures might interfere in the process of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatment. This review demonstrates the importance of a culture-sensitive approach and therapy and the usefulness of specific culture-sensitive services for certain non-western populations.
WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Psychotherapy has traditionally competed with psychopharmacology. As drugs have become the more dominant treatment in psychiatry and primary care, this approach is increasingly criticized as limited in scope, lacking in robust outcomes and too heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. Our objective is to show that recent advances in neurobiology are clarifying that learning and environmental experiences, such as psychotherapy, change brain circuits as do drugs.
INTRODUCTION: Today, psychological processes and brain is no longer looked at as something less scientific in comparison with physical processes, so mental diseases will become equal as physical diseases very soon. Until recently, brain functioning could be observed only in patients with cerebral lesions, after surgery, and on animals, but it is possible today to observe it directly with modern imaging techniques.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America
This article provides a selective review of the neuroscience and child-psychoanalytic literature, focusing on areas of significant overlap and emphasizing comprehensive theories in developmental neuroscience and child psychoanalysis with testable mechanisms of action.
Presently available clinical genetic studies point to a considerable heritability of anxiety disorders (30-67%), with multiple vulnerability genes such as 5-HT1A, 5-HTT, MAO-A, COMT, CCK-B, ADORA2A, CRHR1, FKBP5, ACE, RGS2/7 and NPSR1 suggested by molecular genetic association studies. These genes have been shown to partially interact with each other as well as with environmental factors to shape the overall disease risk in a complex genetic model.
