Substance abuse
prevention
Gilberto Gerra
Chief
Drug Prevention and Health Branch
and
vulnerability
Exploring
resilience...
Identifying risk conditions
Biol Psychiatry
Lasting epigenetic influence of early-life adversity on the BDNF gene.
Roth et al., 2009
brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene
first postnatal week
infant rats exposed
to stressed caretakers
with abusive behaviors
persisting changes in methylation
of BDNF DNA that caused altered BDNF
gene expression in the adult prefrontal cortex
BDNF DNA methylation in offspring of females
that had previously experienced the maltreatment regimen
Proceedings of the Naional Academy of Sciences
of the United States of America (PNAS), 2012
Epigenetic effects of drugs
Epigenetic mechanisms in drug addiction
Renthal and Nestler, 2009
Submitted twice or more times
to epigenetic effects:
1) During the clinical history
2) During the exposure to drugs
Prevention of substance abuse
reaching the most vulnerable
Prevention of substance abuse
as a pillar of development and freedom