Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Where Do Epigenetics and Developmental Origins Take the Field of Developmental Psychopathology?

  • Published:
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The time is ripe for upgrading or rethinking the assumed paradigms for how we study developmental psychopathology. The classic transactional models appear robust but need specification in terms of biological and psychosocial processes. That specification is increasingly tractable due to developments in genetics, epigenetics, the measurement of psychosocial processes, and theory and data on developmental origins of health and disease. This essay offers a high-level view of where the field has been and where it may be going in regard to nosology and conceptions of etiology. Remarks seek to consider rapidly evolving contexts not only for children, but also for the science itself due to progress in our field and in neighboring fields. Illustrations are provided as to how syndromal nosology can be enriched and advanced by careful integration with biologically relevant behavioral dimensions and application of quantitative methods. It is concluded that a revised, forward-looking, transactional model of abnormal child psychology will incorporate prenatal and postnatal developmental programming, epigenetic mechanisms and their associated genotype x environment interactions, and inflammatory processes as a potential common mediator influencing numerous health and mental health conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agerbo, E., Sullivan, P. F., & Vilhjálmsson, B. J. (2015). Polygenic risk score, parental socioeconomic status, family history of psychiatric disorders, and the risk for schizophrenia: a Danish population-based study and meta-analysis. Journal American Medical Association Psychiatry, 72, 635–641. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.0346.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambalavanan, A., Girard, S. L., Ahn, K., Zhou, S., Dionne-Laporte, A., Spiegelman, D., Bourassa, C. V., Gauthier, J., Hamdan, F. F., & Rouleau, G. A. (2015). De novo variants in sporadic cases of childhood onset schizophrenia. European Journal of Human Genetics. doi:10.1038/ejhg.2015.218.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Babenko, O., Kovalchuk, I., & Metz, G. A. (2015). Stress-induced perinatal and transgenerational epigenetic programming of brain development and mental health. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 48, 70–91.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, K. A., Wu, M. C., Ward, W. O., Smeester, L., Rager, J. E., Garcia-Vargas, G., Del Razo, L. M., Drobna, Z., Styblo, M., & Fry, R. C. (2013). Arsenic and the epigenome: interindividual differences in arsenic metabolism related to distinct patterns of DNA methylation. Journal of Biochemical and Molecular Toxicology, 27, 106–115. doi:10.1002/jbt.21462.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bale, T. L. (2015). Epigenetic and transgenerational reprogramming of brain development. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16, 332–344. doi:10.1038/nrn3818.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barker, D. J. (1995). Fetal origins of coronary heart disease. BMJ, 311, 171–174.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Barker, D. J., & Thornburg, K. L. (2013). The obstetric origins of health for a lifetime. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, 56, 511–519. doi:10.1097/GRF.0b013e31829cb9ca.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchaine, T. P., Neuhaus, E., Zalewski, M., Crowell, S. E., & Potapova, N. (2011). The effects of allostatic load on neural systems subserving motivation, mood regulation, and social affiliation. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 975–999.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Belsky, J., Pluess, M., & Widaman, K. F. (2013). Confirmatory and competitive evaluation of alternative gene-environment interaction hypotheses. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 54, 1135–1143. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12075.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, S. L., Kouzarides, T., Shiekhattar, R., & Shilatifard, A. (2009). An operational definition of epigenetics. Genes and Development, 23, 781–783. doi:10.1101/gad.1787609.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Betancourt, T. S., Newnham, E. A., McBain, R., & Brennan, R. T. (2013). Post-traumatic stress symptoms among former child soldiers in sierra leone: Follow-up study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 203, 196–202. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.112.113514.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bolton, J. L., & Bilbo, S. D. (2014). Developmental programming of brain and behavior by perinatal diet: focus on inflammatory mechanisms. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 16, 307–320.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Borsini, A., Zunszain, P. A., Thuret, S., & Pariante, C. M. (2015). The role of inflammatory cytokines as key modulators of neurogenesis. Trends in Neurosciences, 38, 145–157.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U., & Ceci, S. J. (1994). Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: a bioecological model. Psychological Review, 101, 568–586.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, A. S. (2015). The kraepelinian dichotomy from the perspective of prenatal infectious and immunologic insults. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 41, 786–791. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbv063.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burt, S. A. (2009). Rethinking environmental contributions to child and adolescent psychopathology: a meta-analysis of shared environmental influences. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 608–637. doi:10.1037/a0015702.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Byrd, A. L., & Manuck, S. B. (2014). Maoa, childhood maltreatment, and antisocial behavior: meta-analysis of a gene-environment interaction. Biological Psychiatry, 75, 9–17.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chang, E. H., Harford, J. B., Eaton, M. A., Boisseau, P. M., Dube, A., Hayeshi, R., Swai, H., & Lee, D. S. (2015). Nanomedicine: past, present and future—a global perspective. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2015.10.136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaves, C., Zuardi, A. W., & Hallak, J. E. (2015). The role of inflammation in schizophrenia: an overview. Trends in Psychiatry Psychotherapy, 37, 104–105.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti, D. (1984). The emergence of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 1–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti, D., & Richters, J. E. (1997). Examining the conceptual and scientific underpinnings of research in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 189–191.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coiro, P., Padmashri, R., Suresh, A., Spartz, E., Pendyala, G., Chou, S., Jung, Y., Meays, B., Roy, S., Gautam, N., Alnouti, Y., Li, M., & Dunaevsky, A. (2015). Impaired synaptic development in a maternal immune activation mouse model of neurodevelopmental disorders. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2015.07.022.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, F. S., & Tabak, L. A. (2014). Policy: NIH plans to enhance reproducibility. Nature, 505, 612–613.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cortese, S., Moreira-Maia, C. R., St Fleur, D., Morcillo-Penalver, C., Rohde, L. A., & Faraone, S. V. (2015). Association between ADHD and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2015.15020266.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Costa Dias, T. G., Iyer, S. P., Carpenter, S. D., Cary, R. P., Wilson, V. B., Mitchell, S. H., & Fair, D. A. (2015). Characterizing heterogeneity in children with and without adhd based on reward system connectivity. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 11, 155–174.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dalteg, A., Zandelin, A., Tuninger, E., & Levander, S. (2014). Psychosis in adulthood is associated with high rates of adhd and cd problems during childhood. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 68, 560–566. doi:10.3109/08039488.2014.892151.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Debnath, M., Venkatasubramanian, G., & Berk, M. (2015). Fetal programming of schizophrenia: select mechanisms. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 49, 90–104.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dickerson, F., Stallings, C., Origoni, A., Schroeder, J., Katsafanas, E., Schweinfurth, L., Savage, C., Khushalani, S., & Yolken, R. (2015). Inflammatory markers in recent onset psychosis and chronic schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbv108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dougherty, C. C., Evans, D. W., Myers, S. M., Moore, G. J., & Michael, A. M. (2015). A comparison of structural brain imaging findings in autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Neuropsychology Review. doi:10.1007/s11065-015-9300-2.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Drake, A. J., McPherson, R. C., Godfrey, K. M., Cooper, C., Lillycrop, K. A., Hanson, M. A., Meehan, R. R., Seckl, J. R., & Reynolds, R. M. (2012). An unbalanced maternal diet in pregnancy associates with offspring epigenetic changes in genes controlling glucocorticoid action and foetal growth. Clinical Endocrinology, 77, 808–815. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2265.2012.04453.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, B. J., Boyce, W. T., Belsky, J., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2011). Differential susceptibility to the environment: an evolutionary-neurodevelopmental theory. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 7–28.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Engel, S. M., Wetmur, J., Chen, J., Zhu, C., Barr, D. B., Canfield, R. L., & Wolff, M. S. (2011). Prenatal exposure to organophosphates, paraoxonase 1, and cognitive development in childhood. Environmental Health Perspectives, 119, 1182–1188.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fair, D. A., Bathula, D., Nikolas, M. A., & Nigg, J. T. (2012). Distinct neuropsychological subgroups in typically developing youth inform heterogeneity in children with adhd. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109, 6769–6774. doi:10.1073/pnas.1115365109.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Faraone, S. V. (2015). An update on adhd genetics. Paper presented at the World Congress on ADHD. Scotland: Glasgow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faraone, S. V., & Antshel, K. M. (2014). Towards an evidence-based taxonomy of nonpharmacologic treatments for adhd. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 23, 965–972. doi:10.1016/j.chc.2014.06.003.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Francis, A. N., Bhojraj, T. S., Prasad, K. M., Montrose, D., Eack, S. M., Rajarethinam, R., Sweeney, J. A., & Keshavan, M. S. (2013). Alterations in the cerebral white matter of genetic high risk offspring of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 40, 187–192.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Goodkind, M., Eickhoff, S. B., Oathes, D. J., Jiang, Y., Chang, A., Jones-Hagata, L. B., Ortega, B. N., Zaiko, Y. V., & Etkin, A. (2015). Identification of a common neurobiological substrate for mental illness. Journal American Medical Association Psychiatry, 72, 305–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, G. (2007). Probabilistic epigenesis. Developmental Science, 10, 1–11. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00556.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hamshere, M. L., Stergiakouli, E., Langley, K., Martin, J., Holmans, P., Kent, L., & Craddock, N. (2013). Shared polygenic contribution between childhood attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and adult schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 203, 107–111.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkey, E., & Nigg, J. T. (2014). Omega-3 fatty acid and adhd: blood level analysis and meta-analytic extension of supplementation trials. Clinical Psychology Review, 34, 496–505.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Heijmans, B. T., Tobi, E. W., Stein, A. D., Putter, H., Blauw, G. J., Susser, E. S., Slagboom, P. E., & Lumey, L. H. (2008). Persistent epigenetic differences associated with prenatal exposure to famine in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105, 17046–17049. doi:10.1073/pnas.0806560105.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Howes, O. D., & Murray, R. M. (2014). Schizophrenia: an integrated sociodevelopmental-cognitive model. Lancet, 383, 1677–1687. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(13)62036-x.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Insel, T., Cuthbert, B., Garvey, M., Heinssen, R., Pine, D. S., Quinn, K., Sanislow, C., & Wang, P. (2010). Research domain criteria (rdoc): toward a new classification framework for research on mental disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 748–751.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ioannidis, J. P. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Medicine, 2, e124. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Iossifov, I., O’Roak, B. J., Sanders, S. J., Ronemus, M., Krumm, N., Levy, D., & Wigler, M. (2014). The contribution of de novo coding mutations to autism spectrum disorder. Nature, 515, 216–221. doi:10.1038/nature13908.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Iyegbe, C., Campbell, D., Butler, A., Ajnakina, O., & Sham, P. (2014). The emerging molecular architecture of schizophrenia, polygenic risk scores and the clinical implications for gxe research. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 49, 169–182.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Karalunas, S. L., Fair, D., Musser, E. D., Aykes, K., Iyer, S. P., & Nigg, J. T. (2014). Subtyping attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder using temperament dimensions: toward biologically based nosologic criteria. Journal American Medical Association Psychiatry, 71, 1015–1024. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.763.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khandaker, G. M., Cousins, L., Deakin, J., Lennox, B. R., Yolken, R., & Jones, P. B. (2015). Inflammation and immunity in schizophrenia: implications for pathophysiology and treatment. Lancet Psychiatry, 2, 258–270. doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(14)00122-9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kraemer, H. C. (2015). Research domain criteria (rdoc) and the dsm-two methodological approaches to mental health diagnosis. Journal American Medical Association Psychiatry, 72, 1163–1164. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.2134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraepelin, E. (1899). Textbook of psychiatry. (psychiatrie. Ein lehrbuch für studierende und arzte) (6th ed.). Leipzig: Earth Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krumm, N., Turner, T. N., Baker, C., Vives, L., Mohajeri, K., Witherspoon, K., Raja, A., & Eichler, E. E. (2015). Excess of rare, inherited truncating mutations in autism. Nature Genetics, 47, 582–588. doi:10.1038/ng.3303.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lahey, B. B., Rathouz, P. J., Van Hulle, C., Urbano, R. C., Krueger, R. F., Applegate, B., Garriock, H. A., Chapman, D. A., & Waldman, I. D. (2008). Testing structural models of DSM-IV symptoms of common forms of child and adolescent psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36(2), 187–206.

  • Lahey, B. B., Van Hulle, C. A., Singh, A. L., Waldman, I. D., & Rathouz, P. J. (2011). Higher-order genetic and environmental structure of prevalent forms of child and adolescent psychopathology. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68, 181–189.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Landrigan, P. J. (2015). Children’s environmental health: a brief history. Academic Pediatrics. doi:10.1016/j.acap.2015.10.002.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lanphear, B. P. (2015). The impact of toxins on the developing brain. Annual Review of Public Health, 36, 211–230. doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031912-114413.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, S. S., Humphreys, K. L., Flory, K., Liu, R., & Glass, K. (2011). Prospective association of childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd) and substance use and abuse/dependence: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 328–341.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, S. H., Ripke, S., Neale, B. M., Faraone, S. V., Purcell, S. M., Perlis, R. H., Mowry, B. J., Thapar, A., Goddard, M. E., & Wray, N. R. (2013). Genetic relationship between five psychiatric disorders estimated from genome-wide snps. Nature Genetics, 45, 984–994. doi:10.1038/ng.2711.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, S. J., Relton, C., Zammit, S., & Smith, G. D. (2013). Approaches for strengthening causal inference regarding prenatal risk factors for childhood behavioural and psychiatric disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54, 1095–1108.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone, S., & Smith, P. K. (2014). Annual research review: harms experienced by child users of online and mobile technologies: the nature, prevalence and management of sexual and aggressive risks in the digital age. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 55, 635–654. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12197.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Luo, M., Xu, Y., Cai, R., Tang, Y., Ge, M. M., Liu, Z. H., Xu, L., Hu, F., Ruan, D. Y., & Wang, H. L. (2014). Epigenetic histone modification regulates developmental lead exposure induced hyperactivity in rats. Toxicology Letters, 225, 78–85. doi:10.1016/j.toxlet.2013.11.025.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, B., Wilker, E. H., Willis-Owen, S. A., Byun, H. M., Wong, K. C., Motta, V., Baccarelli, A. A., Schwartz, J., Cookson, W. O., Khabbaz, K., Mittleman, M. A., Moffatt, M. F., & Liang, L. (2014). Predicting DNA methylation level across human tissues. Nucleic Acids Research, 42, 3515–3528. doi:10.1093/nar/gkt1380.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Markon, K. E., Krueger, R. F., & Watson, D. (2005). Delineating the structure of normal and abnormal personality: an integrative hierarchical approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 139–157. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.1.139.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, J., O’Donovan, M. C., Thapar, A., Langley, K., & Williams, N. (2015). The relative contribution of common and rare genetic variants to adhd. Translational Psychiatry, 5, e506.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, M., & Fair, D. A. (2015). Research review: functional brain connectivity and child psychopathology—overview and methodological considerations for investigators new to the field. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 56, 400–414.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McPherson, N. O., Bell, V. G., Zander-Fox, D. L., Fullston, T., Wu, L. L., Robker, R. L., & Lane, M. (2015). When two obese parents are worse than one! impacts on embryo and fetal development. American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism, 309, E568–581. doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00230.2015.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meehl, P. E. (1962). Schizotaxia, schizotypy, schizophrenia. American Psychologist, 17, 827.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, A. H., & Raison, C. L. (2015). Are anti-inflammatory therapies viable treatments for psychiatric disorders?: where the rubber meets the road. Journal American Medical Association Psychiatry, 72, 527–528. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, M., Iosif, A. M., Young, G. S., Hill, M., Phelps Hanzel, E., Hutman, T., Johnson, S., & Ozonoff, S. (2015). School-age outcomes of infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research. doi:10.1002/aur.1572.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Misiak, B., Frydecka, D., Zawadzki, M., Krefft, M., & Kiejna, A. (2014). Refining and integrating schizophrenia pathophysiology—relevance of the allostatic load concept. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 45, 183–201. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.06.004.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, R. H., & Goldstein, B. I. (2014). Inflammation in children and adolescents with neuropsychiatric disorders: a systematic review. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 53, 274–296. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2013.11.013.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mondelli, V., Ciufolini, S., Murri, M. B., Bonaccorso, S., Di Forti, M., Giordano, A et al. (2015). Cortisol and inflammatory biomarkers predict poor treatment response in first episode psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin, sbv028.

  • Monk, C., Georgieff, M. K., & Osterholm, E. A. (2013). Research review: maternal prenatal distress and poor nutrition—mutually influencing risk factors affecting infant neurocognitive development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 54, 115–130. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12000.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Musser, E. D., Hawkey, E., Kachan-Liu, S. S., Lees, P., Roullet, J. B., Goddard, K., Steiner, R. D., & Nigg, J. T. (2014). Shared familial transmission of autism spectrum and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 55, 819–827. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12201.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Nigg, J. T., Elmore, A. L., Natarajan, N., Friderici, K. H., & Nikolas, M. A. (2015a). Variation in iron metabolism gene moderates the association between low-level blood lead exposure and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Psychological Science.

  • Nigg, J. T., Johnstone, J., Musser, E. D., Willoughby, M., & Shannon, J. (2015b). Adhd and risk for obesity: a meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review.

  • Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K., & Flegal, K. M. (2014). Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the united states, 2011–2012. JAMA, 311, 806–814.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • O’Roak, B. J., Stessman, H. A., Boyle, E. A., Witherspoon, K. T., Martin, B., Lee, C., Vives, L., Baker, C., Hiatt, J. B., Nickerson, D. A., Bernier, R., Shendure, J., & Eichler, E. E. (2014). Recurrent de novo mutations implicate novel genes underlying simplex autism risk. Nature Communications, 5, 5595. doi:10.1038/ncomms6595.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Pariante, C. M. (2015). Neuroscience, mental health and the immune system: overcoming the brain-mind-body trichotomy. Epidemioogyl Psychiatric Science. 1–5. doi: 10.1017/s204579601500089x

  • Peterson, B. S., Rauh, V. A., Bansal, R., Hao, X., Toth, Z., Nati, G., Walsh, K., Miller, R. L., Arias, F., & Perera, F. (2015). Effects of prenatal exposure to air pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) on the development of brain white matter, cognition, and behavior in later childhood. Journal American Medical Association Psychiatry, 72, 531–540.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrill, S. A., Bartlett, C. W., & Blair, C. (2013). Gene-environment interplay in child psychology and psychiatry—challenges and ways forward. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 54, 1029. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12133.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pino, O., Guilera, G., Gomez-Benito, J., Najas-Garcia, A., Rufian, S., & Rojo, E. (2014). Neurodevelopment or neurodegeneration: review of theories of schizophrenia. Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría: Acepsi, 42, 185–195.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Plichta, M. M., & Scheres, A. (2014). Ventral-striatal responsiveness during reward anticipation in adhd and its relation to trait impulsivity in the healthy population: a meta-analytic review of the fmri literature. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 38, 125–134.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Psychiatric Genetics Consoritum. (2013). Identification of risk loci with shared effects on five major psychiatric disorders: a genome-wide analysis. Lancet, 381(9875), 1371–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. (2015). Psychiatric genome-wide association study analyses implicate neuronal, immune and histone pathways. Nature Neuroscience, 18, 199–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Purcell, S. (2002). Variance components models for gene-environment interaction in twin analysis. Twin Research, 5, 554–571. doi:10.1375/136905202762342026.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ray, S., Miller, M., Karalunas, S., Robertson, C., Grayson, D. S., Cary, R. P., Hawkey, E., Painter, J. G., Kriz, D., Fombonne, E., Nigg, J. T., & Fair, D. A. (2014). Structural and functional connectivity of the human brain in autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a rich club-organization study. Human Brain Mapping, 35, 6032–6048. doi:10.1002/hbm.22603.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rho, A., Traicu, A., Lepage, M., Iyer, S. N., Malla, A., & Joober, R. (2015). Clinical and functional implications of a history of childhood adhd in first-episode psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 165, 128–133. doi:10.1016/j.schres.2015.03.031.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rommelse, N. N., Franke, B., Geurts, H. M., Hartman, C. A., & Buitelaar, J. K. (2010). Shared heritability of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 19, 281–295.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rush, B. (1812). Medical inquiries and observations upon the diseases of the mind. Philadelphia: Kimber & Richardson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sable, P., Randhir, K., Kale, A., Chavan-Gautam, P., & Joshi, S. (2015). Maternal micronutrients and brain global methylation patterns in the offspring. Nutritional Neuroscience, 18, 30–36. doi:10.1179/1476830513y.0000000097.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez-Gistau, V., Romero, S., Moreno, D., de la Serna, E., Baeza, I., Sugranyes, G., & Castro-Fornieles, J. (2015). Psychiatric disorders in child and adolescent offspring of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: a controlled study. Schizophrenia Research, 168, 197–203. doi:10.1016/j.schres.2015.08.034.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, P., Stringaris, A., Nigg, J., & Leibenluft, E. (2014). Emotion dysregulation in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171, 276–293.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Shyu, Y. C., Yuan, S. S., Lee, S. Y., Yang, C. J., Yang, K. C., Lee, T. L., & Wang, L. J. (2015). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, methylphenidate use and the risk of developing schizophrenia spectrum disorders: a nationwide population-based study in taiwan. Schizophrenia Research, 168, 161–167. doi:10.1016/j.schres.2015.08.033.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, M. K., Guerrero-Bosagna, C., Haque, M., Nilsson, E., Bhandari, R., & McCarrey, J. R. (2013). Environmentally induced transgenerational epigenetic reprogramming of primordial germ cells and the subsequent germ line. PloS One, 8, e66318.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sng, J., & Meaney, M. J. (2009). Environmental regulation of the neural epigenome. Epigenomics, 1, 131–151. doi:10.2217/epi.09.21.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • South, S. C., Hamdi, N., & Krueger, R. F. (2015). Biometric modeling of gene-environment interplay: the intersection of theory and method and applications for social inequality. Journal of Personality. doi:10.1111/jopy.12231.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spencer, S. J. (2013). Perinatal programming of neuroendocrine mechanisms connecting feeding behavior and stress. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 7, 00109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sroufe, L. A. (2013). The promise of developmental psychopathology: past and present. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 1215–1224. doi:10.1017/s0954579413000576.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson, J., Sonuga-Barke, E., McCann, D., Grimshaw, K., Parker, K. M., Rose-Zerilli, M. J., & Warner, J. O. (2010). The role of histamine degradation gene polymorphisms in moderating the effects of food additives on children’s adhd symptoms. American Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 1108–1115. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09101529.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stuart, M. J., Singhal, G., & Baune, B. T. (2015). Systematic review of the neurobiological relevance of chemokines to psychiatric disorders. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 9, 357. doi:10.3389/fncel.2015.00357.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Su, K. P., Matsuoka, Y., & Pae, C. U. (2015). Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in prevention of mood and anxiety disorders. Clinical Psychopharmacology Neuroscience, 13, 129–137. doi:10.9758/cpn.2015.13.2.129.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Susser, E., Neugebauer, R., Hoek, H. W., Brown, A. S., Lin, S., Labovitz, D., & Gorman, J. M. (1996). Schizophrenia after prenatal famine. further evidence. Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 25–31.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Szyf, M. (2015). Prospects for the development of epigenetic drugs for cns conditions. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 14, 461–474. doi:10.1038/nrd4580.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (2015). Refugees—the numbers. United Nations—Resources for Speakers on Global Issues. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/refugees.

  • van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Belsky, J., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2012). Serotonin transporter genotype 5httlpr as a marker of differential susceptibility? a meta-analysis of child and adolescent gene-by-environment studies. Translational Psychiatry, 2, e147.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wadhwa, P. D., Buss, C., Entringer, S., & Swanson, J. M. (2009). Developmental origins of health and disease: brief history of the approach and current focus on epigenetic mechanisms. Seminars in Reproductive Medicine, 27, 358–368.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Q., Yang, C., Gelernter, J., & Zhao, H. (2015). Pervasive pleiotropy between psychiatric disorders and immune disorders revealed by integrative analysis of multiple gwas. Human Genetics, 134, 1195–1209. doi:10.1007/s00439-015-1596-8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox, R., Carlson, M., Azen, S., & Clark, F. (2013). Avoid lost discoveries, because of violations of standard assumptions, by using modern robust statistical methods. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 66, 319–329. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2012.09.003.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfers, T., Buitelaar, J. K., Beckmann, C. F., Franke, B., & Marquand, A. F. (2015). From estimating activation locality to predicting disorder: a review of pattern recognition for neuroimaging-based psychiatric diagnostics. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 57, 328–349. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.08.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yirmiya, R., Rimmerman, N., & Reshef, R. (2015). Depression as a microglial disease. Trends in Neurosciences, 38, 637–658. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2015.08.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zubin, J., & Spring, B. (1977). Vulnerability—a new view of schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 86, 103–126. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/858828.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

A version of this paper was delivered as the Presidential Address at the Biennial meeting of the International Society for Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, July, 2015. This work was supported by NIMH Grant MH R37-59105.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon, Portland, USA

    Joel T. Nigg

Authors
  1. Joel T. Nigg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joel T. Nigg.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The author reports no conflicts of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nigg, J.T. Where Do Epigenetics and Developmental Origins Take the Field of Developmental Psychopathology?. J Abnorm Child Psychol 44, 405–419 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0121-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0121-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation