Momentum

What's the biological link between childhood hardships and mental disorders? To find out, Lucy Allbaugh, assistant professor of psychology, and a team of students partnered with researchers from McLean Hospital, a Harvard affiliate, and Dayton Children's Hospital on the Dayton Kids Project.

The project will enroll up to 1,000 families in a program to understand how trauma is passed down from generation to generation — and what can be done to improve the mental health of children.

"Epigenetics is the study of reversible biological mechanisms that regulate the function of our genome, or the brain's instruction manual," Allbaugh said. "Studies have shown that factors like toxic stress and poverty can change these epigenetic markers and lead to the development of mental and physical disorders over time."

Ultimately, the researchers aim to identify markers to help treat children before the onset of mental health problems. This will help to provide earlier and more effective interventions in mental health cases.

"This is some of the most exciting and groundbreaking work being done in psychiatric research," said Dr. Scott L. Rauch, McLean's president and psychiatrist in chief.

Allbaugh's research is driven by the question of what puts people on a risky versus resilient trajectory in relation to generational trauma and mental health disorders.

"Experiencing stress and trauma puts people at risk for mental and physical health problems, but what we also know is that most people who experience these types of trauma-related stressors do not experience these types of effects," Allbaugh said. "In fact, many people are resilient, meaning that they can bounce back and get to a place of wellness after the trauma."

Understanding what helps those resilient individuals is critically important for shaping interventions for those who are at risk for PTSD, other mental health problems and trauma-related illnesses.

"I want to focus on identifying those individuals at the highest need for intervention or services and looking at biological markers is one way to do this," said Allbaugh.