ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2013
Looking beyond the DNA sequence: the relevance of DNA methylation processes for the stress-diathesis model of depression.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- What do DNA methylation studies tell us about depression? A systematic review.Translational psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Longitudinal associations of DNA-methylation of OXT, SLC6A4 and NR3C1 genes with the treatment response in patients with depression.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- ACMSD methylation in peripheral blood is associated with dynamic functional connectivity pattern in adolescent MDD patients.Epigenetics · 2025Article
- Contribution of physiological dynamics in predicting major depressive disorder severity.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Advances and Challenges in Depression Marker Research.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Review
- The role of epigenetics in anxiety disorders.Molecular biology reports · 2023Review
- The Genetic Side of the Mood: A Scientometric Review of the Genetic Basis of Mood Disorders.Genes · 2023Review
- Epigenetics in depression and gut-brain axis: A molecular crosstalk.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Review
- Inhibitors of DNA Methylation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2022Review
- Is Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor Methylation Involved in the Association Between Prenatal Stress and Maternal Postnatal Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic?Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- The investigation of nonsynonymous SNPs of humanHeliyon · 2021Article
- Neuroimaging and DNA Methylation: An Innovative Approach to Study the Effects of Early Life Stress on Developmental Plasticity.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Increased methylation of NR3C1 and SLC6A4 is associated with blunted cortisol reactivity to stress in major depression.Neurobiology of stress · 2020Article
- Pilot study of combined aerobic and resistance exercise on fatigue for patients with head and neck cancer: Inflammatory and epigenetic changes.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2020Article
- Understanding the Complex of Suicide in Depression: from Research to Clinics.Psychiatry investigation · 2020Article
- DNA Methylation Across the Serotonin Transporter Gene Following Marital Separation: A Pilot Study.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2019Article
- White Matter Abnormalities in Major Depression Biotypes Identified by Diffusion Tensor Imaging.Neuroscience bulletin · 2019Article
- Prevalence, symptomatology, risk factors and healthcare services utilization regarding paternal depression in Germany: study protocol of a controlled cross-sectional epidemiological study.BMC psychiatry · 2019Article
- A longitudinal, epigenome-wide study of DNA methylation in anorexia nervosa: results in actively ill, partially weight-restored, long-term remitted and non-eating-disordered womenJournal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and serotonergic (5-HT) system are known to be intertwined with mood. Alterations in these systems are often associated with depression. However, neither are sufficient to cause depression in and of themselves. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the environment plays a crucial role, particularly, the perinatal environment. In this review, we posit that early environmental stress triggers a series of epigenetic mechanisms that adapt the genome and programme the HPA axis and 5-HT system for survival in a harsh environment. We focus on DNA methylation as it is the most stable epigenetic mark. Given that DNA methylation patterns are in large part set within the perinatal period, long-term gene expression programming by DNA methylation is especially vulnerable to environmental insults during this period. We discuss specific examples of genes in the 5-HT system (serotonin transporter) and HPA axis (glucocorticoid receptor and arginine vasopressin enhancer) whose DNA methylation state is associated with early life experience and may potentially lead to depression vulnerability. We conclude with a discussion on the relevance of studying epigenetic mechanisms in peripheral tissue as a proxy for those occurring in the human brain and suggest avenues for future research.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.