Citation

Maglione D, Caputi M, Moretti B, Scaini S. Res. Dev. Disabil. 2018; 82: 53-66.

Affiliation

Faculty of Psychology, Sigmund Freud University, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: s.scaini@milano-sfu.it.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ridd.2018.06.005

PMID

29934252

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In the last years, several studies focused on the role of Gene-Environment interactions (GxE) in influencing psychopathological outcomes among maltreated children and adolescents. These studies analysed the effect of different genetic variations. AIMS: The aim of the present review is to provide an overview of studies investigating GxE effects among maltreated children and adolescents.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A systematic literature review was performed by using the following keywords: "Child maltreatment" and "GxE", "Child maltreatment" and "Psychopathology", "Gene-Environment interaction", "Gene-environment correlation", "GxE and psychopathology", "Childhood trauma" and "Psychiatric symptoms", "Early adverse life events", "Early life stress", "Antisocial behaviour", "Depression", "Internalizing symptoms", through the following electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus and PsycINFO, from 2006 to 2017, finding a total of 31 papers. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The present review confirm that maltreatment produces worse psychopathological outcomes (antisocial behaviour, depression, and other psychiatric traits) in subjects with a specific genetic vulnerability.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Comprehending the pathways from child maltreatment to psychopathology in their full complexity will be essential to build efficacious preventive and therapeutic protocols.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescents; Children; Developmental psychopathology; Gene-By-Environment interaction; Maltreatment