A recent study found that major depression leaves a metabolic signature, meaning that depression changes DNA. The study also revealed that the DNA samples taken from women with histories of stress-related depression – often related to forms of childhood adversity such sexual abuse – that there were more mitochondrial DNA present compared with samples from other study participants (James McIntosh Medical News Today 4/4/2015). Is the change in DNA then related to depression or trauma?
There are also studies that show trauma changes DNA (Stacy S. Drury, MD, PhD,Emily Mabile, BA,Zoë H. Brett, PhD,Kyle Esteves, BA,Edward Jones, BA,Elizabeth A. Shirtcliff, PhD,Katherine P. Theall, PhD. Pediatrics 6/6/14).
So could both depression and trauma impact DNA? Both impact functioning, and the two often overlap, as the first study shows. If you suffer from either depression or trauma, there is help. Please call.