Abuse may trigger gene changes found in suicide victims

Or it just might be a psychological problem created by the environment.
Aren't we looking a little too much into this ?
 
Challenger78 said:
Or it just might be a psychological problem created by the environment.
Aren't we looking a little too much into this ?
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Well, why do people kill themselves in the first place ? It's because they are mentally weak, isn't it ?
If this mental weakness is genetic, and it probably is at least to a degree, then suicide is evolution at work.
 
suicidal tendency can run in families and is probably related to a combination of genes. Could these genes be useful or just piggybacking on the rest of our genome?
 
"The question is whether we could design an intervention – dietary, social, pharmacological – that could reverse it," says Szyf.
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for brain damage?
 
Kind of a stretch, in my opinion. DNA methylation is not restricted to victims of abuse, it is quite common and in fact, methylation of tumor suppressor genes is one of the mechanisms of carcinogenesis.
 
Well, one can assume that abuse is a kind of stress that leads to regulatory changes. As SAM said, a relatively common mechanism. These are not gene changes in the usual sense, but modifications that do not change the end product (usually) but rather the activity.
 
varda said:
"The question is whether we could design an intervention – dietary, social, pharmacological – that could reverse it," says Szyf.
”
for brain damage?
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Yes. Much of the brain, like much of the body, can be rehabbed or modified - it changes, physically, over time, depending on how it is used, fed, etc. That opens the door for therapeutic intervention.

Best keep an eye on what the therapist regards as "damage", though.
 
Michael said:
suicidal tendency can run in families and is probably related to a combination of genes. Could these genes be useful or just piggybacking on the rest of our genome?
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I'm yet somewhat skeptical of the correlations of lineages and "traits" like that (as genes are not all that run in families), but if there's some meaningful genetic influence, I think that it's much more likely that it's just not bad enough to not have left any offspring.

Some people think that things like bipolar disorder and maybe depression have their upsides anyway, like making people more prone to leadership or art, which could benefit either the group or at least themselves, in terms of fitness/reproducion.

But I think they usually tend to fantasize too much with post-mortem diagnostics/psychoanalyzes of historical figures in order to build such picture. And that even though that could be somewhat true, I think that a more parcimonious statement would just be that the depression and/or suicidal tendency would have to be really extreme to eliminate itself from the pool (or, conversely, non-suicidal genes would need to be much advantageous in terms of fitness), plus, as it's probably not a simple mendelian trait, the selection against (or for non-suicidal alternatives) would be even more difficult.

Furthermore, the epigenetic link creates even deeper problems for a clear-cut "selectionist" scenario.
 
CharonZ said:
Well, one can assume that abuse is a kind of stress that leads to regulatory changes. As SAM said, a relatively common mechanism. These are not gene changes in the usual sense, but modifications that do not change the end product (usually) but rather the activity.
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I think that's a good one. I was just about to say something like that. Stress is stress. Emotional stress and physical stress are similar. A lot of abuse includes physical stress. The abuse that I suffered was enough to cause physical problems, as in a failure to thrive. Maybe it is even true that cell apoptosis is triggered by such stresses and suicidal thoughts are triggered by the same mechanisms.
 
Umm, i'm pretty sure EVERYONE has thought of suicide at least a couple times. I'l admit, when I was younger, i'd take like 15 of w.e pills were in the cabinet and tell myself "if god wants me to die or not, its his choice now".

Cutting also is the same exact feling. If you have ever cut, you know that stinging sensation in your arm feels GREAT, it's like an orgasm. Then you fall asleep perfect with all thought on your arm instead of w.e the problem is.

These self destructive behaviors are the result of a lack of hope. When you feel you are in check mate, you have an option. Suffer the rest of your life, or hit the mistory button. Death is unknown, and there are no consequences in doing it.

ANYBODY can be pushed to suicide. All you need to do is run out of options and hope.

Besides. Abusive parents do not always lead to abusive parents in there children. Females tend to prefer to be abused in relationships, and males tend to abuse, but after you age, it dies along with testosterone levels that demand dominance.
 
BarbieGirl14 said:
Besides. Abusive parents do not always lead to abusive parents in there children. Females tend to prefer to be abused in relationships, and males tend to abuse, but after you age, it dies along with testosterone levels that demand dominance.
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You keep saying that. Do you not realize how disturbing that is to hear from someone who is only 15 years old?

Get some help. Call somebody.
 
.........Anyways, yes stress be it physical or mental causes damage and well evolution can't solve mental stress anymore then it can solve physical stress.
 
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