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Gene-Environment Interactions and Role of Epigenetics in Anxiety Disorders

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Anxiety Disorders

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1191))

Abstract

Several environmental risk factors such as early adverse childhood experiences, stress, and stressful life events are associated with anxiety disorders. Current approaches such as epigenetics and gene-environment interactions were used to identify candidate biomarkers for anxiety disorders to assess determinants of disease. In this chapter, in relation to gene-environment interactions, a variety of association studies regarding anxiety disorders were surveyed. We then showed supporting results from recent association studies such as human studies and animal models in terms of the epigenetic contribution to disease susceptibility to anxiety disorders. At last, future directions and limitations are highlighted. With the advances in multi-omics technologies, innovative ideas regarding disease prevention and drug responsiveness in anxiety disorders require further research in epigenetics and gene-environment interactions.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (grant MOST 107-2634-F-075-002) and from the Taipei Veterans General Hospital (grant V105D17-002-MY2-2). We thank Emily Ting for English editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Eugene Lin

  2. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Eugene Lin

  3. Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Eugene Lin

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shih-Jen Tsai

  5. Division of Psychiatry, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shih-Jen Tsai

  6. Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shih-Jen Tsai

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  1. Eugene Lin
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  2. Shih-Jen Tsai
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medicine, Korea University, Gyeonggido, Korea (Republic of)

    Yong-Ku Kim

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Lin, E., Tsai, SJ. (2020). Gene-Environment Interactions and Role of Epigenetics in Anxiety Disorders. In: Kim, YK. (eds) Anxiety Disorders. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1191. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9705-0_6

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