ArticleWorld psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA)2018
Intergenerational transmission of trauma effects: putative role of epigenetic mechanisms.
Article in World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 226 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
226 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Resilience frameworks, measurement tools, and transmission processes in the context of man-made collective trauma: a meta-synthesis and multilevel meta-analysis.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Pooled it
- Epigenetic effects of endogenous and exogenous glucocorticosteroids during pregnancy on the offspring: a systematic-narrative review.Hormones (Athens, Greece) · 2025Pooled it
- Transgenerational transfer of genocidal trauma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The impact of maternal childhood maltreatment on child externalizing behaviour and the mediating factors underlying this association: a three-level meta-analysis and systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Interventions from pregnancy to two years after birth for parents experiencing complex post-traumatic stress disorder and/or with childhood experience of maltreatment.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Optimizing Outcomes: A Systematic Review of Psychosocial Risk Factors Affecting Perinatal Black/African-American Women with Substance Use Disorder in the United States.Maternal and child health journal · 2022Pooled it
- An epigenome-wide study of a needs-based family intervention for offspring of trauma-exposed mothers in Kosovo.Brain and behavior · 2024Trial
- Psychological and biological long-term consequences of trauma in the Yazidi population displaced from Shingal after the genocide.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- A New Normal: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis of the Transformed Childhood Adversity Landscape in the United States.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Beyond Trauma Exposure and Symptoms: Preconception Transdiagnostic Vulnerability and Postpartum Outcomes in Healthy Women.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Beyond Invisible: Confronting the Policy and Practice Void in Eating Disorder Prevention and Treatment for Indigenous Peoples in Canada.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Contextual Resonance Theory of Psychopathology: A Cognitive-Systemic Framework for Transgenerational Trauma, Distributed Pathology, and Corrective Recontextualization.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Review
- Collective Intergenerational Trauma in Children and Families: Transmission Mechanisms, Effects and Therapeutic Interventions by Health and Social Work Professionals to Promote Health and Strengthen Psychological Resilience.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Psychological and psychosocial interventions for trauma-related psychological distress in adults living in ongoing conflict.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Article
- The impact of pregestational stress on neurodevelopment: Implications for autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.The Journal of physiology · 2026Review
- Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Framework for Culturally Responsive Home Visitation.Journal of transcultural nursing : official journal of the Transcultural Nursing Society · 2026Review
- Persistent sleep disturbances in disaster-exposed children: the longitudinal impact of maternal psychopathology.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- The health consequences of antisemitism (Does antisemitism get under the skin?): A systematic review protocol.MethodsX · 2026Article
- Intergenerational trauma and collective identity among the Jinghpaw: a qualitative exploration.BMC psychology · 2026Article
166 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This paper reviews the research evidence concerning the intergenerational transmission of trauma effects and the possible role of epigenetic mechanisms in this transmission. Two broad categories of epigenetically mediated effects are highlighted. The first involves developmentally programmed effects. These can result from the influence of the offspring's early environmental exposures, including postnatal maternal care as well as in utero exposure reflecting maternal stress during pregnancy. The second includes epigenetic changes associated with a preconception trauma in parents that may affect the germline, and impact fetoplacental interactions. Several factors, such as sex-specific epigenetic effects following trauma exposure and parental developmental stage at the time of exposure, explain different effects of maternal and paternal trauma. The most compelling work to date has been done in animal models, where the opportunity for controlled designs enables clear interpretations of transmissible effects. Given the paucity of human studies and the methodological challenges in conducting such studies, it is not possible to attribute intergenerational effects in humans to a single set of biological or other determinants at this time. Elucidating the role of epigenetic mechanisms in intergenerational effects through prospective, multi-generational studies may ultimately yield a cogent understanding of how individual, cultural and societal experiences permeate our biology.
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