Epigenetics in mental illness

Abstract

Mental illnesses are complex and multifactorial. Nature (genetic factors) is important in their etiology but nurture (environmental factors) via epigenetic mechanisms is being found to be an additional etiological player. Indeed, studies among identical twins show high rates of discordance, especially for stress syndromes and depression. Specifically, aberrant epigenetic regulation is being found to underlie psychiatric disorders. While epigenetic studies of mental illnesses are relatively still in their infancy, further translational research will surely reveal new insights into their pathophysiology, which in turn will help with the discovery of new targets for treatments, biomarkers, patient stratifications and more ‘personalized’ treatment.