ArticleGenes2023
Biological Embedding of Early-Life Adversity and a Scoping Review of the Evidence for Intergenerational Epigenetic Transmission of Stress and Trauma in Humans.
Article in Genes, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 4 of them syntheses 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
29 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Parent-Child Communication after Parental Exposure to Potentially Traumatic Events: A Systematic Review.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Impact of parental adverse childhood experiences on children's healthcare utilisation: a systematic review.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2026Pooled it
- Transgenerational transfer of genocidal trauma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- An epigenome-wide study of a needs-based family intervention for offspring of trauma-exposed mothers in Kosovo.Brain and behavior · 2024Trial
- A New Normal: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis of the Transformed Childhood Adversity Landscape in the United States.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Beyond Household Adversities: Synthetic Imputation of Emotional, Physical and Sexual Abuse for Children Aged <18 Years in the National Survey on Children's Health (NSCH) Through Parameter Bridging from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS).Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Dismantling structural inequities in global prevention of childhood and adolescent non-communicable diseases.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Maternal childhood adversity as an upstream vulnerability for prenatal alcohol use and maternal mental health.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- Association Between Biochemical, Inflammatory, Oxidative Stress and DNA Methylation Biomarkers with Perceived Stress in Mexican Individuals.Biomolecules · 2026Article
- Geographic Measures of Early Life-Course Social Exposome in the Evaluation of Structural Neuroanatomy: A Scoping Review.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2026Review
- Early life stress-induced depression reveals distinct region-specific modulation of unfolded protein response genes in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of rats.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- What we get wrong about stress in sports psychology: an opinion.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- From Early Adversity to Neurodegeneration: Stress Biomarkers as Predictive Signals for Lifespan Brain Health.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Engaging migrants and immigrants in genetics research.Nature genetics · 2025Review
- Radiation effects research foundation-a view to the future.Carcinogenesis · 2025Article
- Perspective to Practice: Theoretical Frameworks Explaining Intergenerational Trauma, Violence, and Maltreatment and Implications for the Therapeutic Response.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Review
- Understanding the Influence of Early-Life Stressors on Social Interaction, Telomere Length, and Hair Cortisol Concentration in Homeless Kittens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Adult Mental Health Associated with Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences Among 1Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
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 at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Severe or chronic stress and trauma can have a detrimental impact on health. Evidence suggests that early-life adversity can become biologically embedded and has the potential to influence health outcomes decades later. Epigenetics is one mechanism that has been implicated in these long-lasting effects. Observational studies in humans indicate that the effects of stress could even persist across generations, although whether or not epigenetic mechanisms are involved remains under debate. Here, we provide an overview of studies in animals and humans that demonstrate the effects of early-life stress on DNA methylation, one of the most widely studied epigenetic mechanisms, and summarize findings from animal models demonstrating the involvement of epigenetics in the transmission of stress across generations. We then describe the results of a scoping review to determine the extent to which the terms intergenerational or transgenerational have been used in human studies investigating the transmission of trauma and stress via epigenetic mechanisms. We end with a discussion of key areas for future research to advance understanding of the role of epigenetics in the legacy effects of stress and trauma.
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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.