Intergenerational transmission of stress vulnerability and resilience

Empirically, it is clear that a number of psychiatric disorders develop from the interaction between genes and environmental exposures, specifically extreme stress or trauma. Accumulative evidence also suggests that stressor and trauma-related exposures prior to conception may additionally contribute to risk for various psychiatric disorders and/or other disease states. Although human studies have focused on maternal effects, animal research has begun to capitalize on the accessibility of germ cells, particularly in males, to determine the extent to which stress is transmitted across generations via epigenetic changes in gametes. Although data across species support the hypothesis that stress exposure in parents is associated with various changes in offspring, clear evidence of a mechanism for intergenerational trauma is still lacking.