Alterations of Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene Methylation in Externalizing Disorders During Childhood and Adolescence

• Published in: Behavior genetics Vol. 45; no. 5; pp. 529 - 536
• Main Authors: Heinrich, Angela, Buchmann, Arlette F., Zohsel, Katrin, Dukal, Helene, Frank, Josef, Treutlein, Jens, Nieratschker, Vanessa, Witt, Stephanie H., Brandeis, Daniel, Schmidt, Martin H., Esser, Günter, Banaschewski, Tobias, Laucht, Manfred, Rietschel, Marcella
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-09-2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Aggressiveness; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Binding sites; Bipolar disorder; Child; Child & adolescent psychiatry; Child Behavior Disorders - genetics; Child development; Clinical Psychology; Conduct disorder; Depressive Disorder - genetics; DNA methylation; DNA Methylation - genetics; Epigenetics; Exons; Female; Health Psychology; Hormones; Humans; Male; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Original Research; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Public Health; Receptors, Glucocorticoid - genetics; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Stress; Young Adult; Germany; Epigenetic; Methylation; Adolescents; Externalizing disorders; Glucocorticoid receptor
• ISSN: 0001-8244; 1573-3297
• DOI: 10.1007/s10519-015-9721-y

Epigenetic modulations are a hypothesized link between environmental factors and the development of psychiatric disorders. Research has suggested that patients with depression or bipolar disorder exhibit higher methylation levels in the glucocorticoid receptor gene
NR3C1
. We aimed to investigate whether
NR3C1
methylation changes are similarly associated with externalizing disorders such as aggressive behavior and conduct disorder.
NR3C1
exon 1F methylation was analyzed in young adults with a lifetime diagnosis of an externalizing disorder (N = 68) or a depressive disorder (N = 27) and healthy controls (N = 124) from the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk. The externalizing disorders group had significantly lower
NR3C1
methylation levels than the lifetime depressive disorder group (
p
 = 0.009) and healthy controls (
p
 = 0.001) This report of lower methylation levels in
NR3C1
in externalizing disorders may indicate a mechanism through which the differential development of externalizing disorders as opposed to depressive disorders might occur.