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. 2017 Apr:14:5-11.
doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.09.003.

The Genetics and Epigenetics of PTSD: Overview, Recent Advances, and Future Directions

Christina M Sheerin  1 , Mackenzie J Lind  1 , Kaitlin Bountress  2 , Nicole R Nugent  3 , Ananda B Amstadter  4
Affiliations

The Genetics and Epigenetics of PTSD: Overview, Recent Advances, and Future Directions

Christina M Sheerin et al. Curr Opin Psychol. 2017 Apr.

Abstract

This paper provides a brief summary and commentary on the growing literature and current developments related to the genetic underpinnings of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We first briefly provide an overview of the behavioral genetic literature on PTSD, followed by a short synopsis of the substantial candidate gene literature with a focus on genes that have been meta-analyzed. We then discuss the genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that have been conducted, followed by an introduction to other molecular platforms used in PTSD genomic studies, such as epigenetic and expression approaches. We close with a discussion of developments in the field that include the creation of the PTSD workgroup of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, statistical advances that can be applied to GWAS data to answer questions of heritability and genetic overlap across phenotypes, and bioinformatics techniques such as gene pathway analyses which will further advance our understanding of the etiology of PTSD.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 1a. Molecular Genetic Studies of PTSD conducted to date. Figure 1b. Specific candidate genes studied within the HPA axis. System = neurotransmitter system of interest; Gene = HPA axis related gene; GWAS = genome-wide association study. Note: These counts are not exhaustive of all PTSD association studies and only include those that primarily examined an association and had a control comparison group. Counts for this figure were derived from review articles (Almli et al., 2013 and Voisey et al., 2014) as well as an updated review of the literature by author ML. COMT has been categorized within the dopaminergic system.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Figure 2a. Epigenetic Studies of PTSD conducted to date. Figure 2b. Specific candidate genes studied within the HPA axis. System = neurotransmitter system of interest; Gene = HPA axis related gene; EWAS = epigenome-wide association study. Note: These counts are not exhaustive of all PTSD epigenetic studies and only include those that primarily examined an association and had a control comparison group. Counts for this figure were derived from review article by Zannas and colleagues (2015) as well as an updated review of the literature by author CS.
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