The research result is all about how childhood trauma can take the major role in altering your DNA. The Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the National Institute of Child Health and Development, USA jointly funded for this research. The brain samples used in the research were donated by the Quebec Suicide Brain Bank, which is under the administration of Dr. Gustavo Turecki, an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and also practices at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. The Quebec Suicide Brain Bank was developed mainly to prevent those people who are suffering from mental distress and committing suicide.

The research included a total of 36 brain samples, out of which 12 were of abused suicide victims, 12 of non-abused suicide victims and 12 controls. The research process brought forward various viewable epigenetic marks in the brains of the abused victims. It is these marks that play an active role by influencing a stress response factor that increases the suicidal tendency in a person. This stress response factor is scientifically or medically termed as hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function. The research also points to the fact that maternal care also plays a major role in influencing the stress response factor in a person. It is the revolutionary works of some of the world-renowned scientists that has uncovered the how parental care influenced the DNA in the brains of the Quebec male suicide victims. Although hard to believe, yet true that all of them were abused in their childhood.

Dr. Gustavo Turecki said in his repost, “We know from clinical experience that a difficult childhood can have an impact on the course of a person’s life”. Dr.Moshe Szyf, a professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics further added, “Now we are starting to understand the biological implications of such psychological abuse”. In a similar report Dr. Michael Meaney, a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology and Neurosurgery and also at the Douglas said, “The function of our DNA is not as fixed as previously believed.” He further added, “The interaction between the environment and the DNA plays a crucial role in determining our resistance to stress thus the risk for suicide and epigenetic marks are the product of this interaction”. However, the all-McGill study report has been published in the February 22’s issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.