Countries all over the world have just finished acknowledging Suicide Prevention Week. Recently some important new research has come out of Montreal concerning suicide. What makes this information so interesting is that the new research shows that abuse and traumatic experiences in childhood could put teens and adults at risk for suicide. It seems that abuse can actually change the DNA in our brains.
Suicide is a major concern for Montreal, Canada, the USA, and the rest of the world. Millions of people take their own lives.
Montreal researchers are looking into developing tests to substantiate these findings. With new and earlier testing, researchers can determine who is at risk and who will benefit from therapy. Not only is the victim gone, family members are often left with questions and trauma of their own, over the suicide of a loved one.
This research on the DNA changes in the brain is being carried out by Montreal’s McGill Group for Suicide Studies. They studied 60 brains of people (mostly males) who had committed suicide. They found that in the 40 percent who had experienced physical and mental abuse in childhood, there were molecular changes in their brains as compared to a normal brain. The cell changes impacted upon how cells functioned. What was found was that the area of the brain that responds to stress was changed in abuse victims. The doctors believe that critical changes in the cells affect the management of stress.
Dr. Gustavo Turecki and his team found what he calls “a biological footprint” of early childhood abuse. The whole process is more complicated that anyone would have thought.
This new field of research is known as called epigenetics and it studies the impact that environment has upon our genes. Though our genetic make-up is permanent, the environment will modify or fine tune genes through what is called methylation. However, it is still not certain how these changes affect behavior, or if it is the very behavior change that triggers the act of suicide.
It is not known at this time if these behavioral changes are permanent. With the new testing and therapy Montreal researchers are banking on finding out more suicide prevention techniques and applications.
Source:
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20120207/abuse-dna-suicide-risk-120208/#ixzz1n54yxEzb
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