Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Laboratory studies have found that early life stress in rodents can cause phosphorylation of methyl CpG binding protein 2 , a protein that preferentially binds CpGs and is most often associated with suppression of gene expression. Stress-dependent phosphorylation of MeCP2 causes MeCP2 to dissociate from the promoter region of a gene called ...
Risk factors for mental illness include psychological trauma, adverse childhood experiences, genetic predisposition, and personality traits. [7] [8] Correlations between mental disorders and substance use are also found to have a two way relationship, in that substance use can lead to the development of mental disorders and having mental disorders can lead to substance use/abuse.
Clinical heterogeneity refers to when a single cause can lead to more than one clinical syndrome. [7] Several genetic risk factors have been found with the endophenotypes of psychiatric disorders, rather than with the diagnoses themselves. That is, the risk factors are associated with particular symptoms, not with the overall diagnosis. [1]
Behavioral epigenetics is the field of study examining the role of epigenetics in shaping animal and human behavior. [1] It seeks to explain how nurture shapes nature, [2] where nature refers to biological heredity [3] and nurture refers to virtually everything that occurs during the life-span (e.g., social-experience, diet and nutrition, and exposure to toxins). [4]
In terms of psychoses, most researchers and clinicians believe that genetics remains a causative risk factor but "genes alone do not cause the illness". [24] [25] Modern views of genetics see genes more like dimmer switches, with environmental factors switching the genes on; the more severe the environmental stress, the more effect genes have. [8]
The diathesis-stress model, also known as the vulnerability–stress model, is a psychological theory that attempts to explain a disorder, or its trajectory, as the result of an interaction between a predispositional vulnerability, the diathesis, and stress caused by life experiences.
For humans, the Big Five personality traits, also known as the five-factor model (FFM) or the OCEAN model, is the prevailing model for personality traits. When factor analysis (a statistical technique) is applied to personality survey data, some words or questionnaire items used to describe aspects of personality are often applied to the same person.
Prolonged stress can disturb the immune, digestive, cardiovascular, sleep, and reproductive systems. [17] For example, it was found that: Chronic stress reduces resistance of infection and inflammation, and might even cause the immune system to attack itself. [27] Stress responses can cause atrophy of muscles and increases in blood pressure. [28]