Post: Can trauma be inherited through genes?

A life-altering experience “doesn’t just die with you,” one expert says. “It has a life of its own afterwards.” Scientists are gathering evidence that suggests emotional trauma can transcend generations by altering how genes in the offspring are switched on and off Photograph by Tek Image, Science Photo Library

June 12, 2024

Emerging science suggests that the effects of trauma—from war and genocide to abuse and environmental factors—could be genetically passed down from one generation to another.

Epigenetics is the study of how genes are turned off and on. The molecular process, known as gene expression, boosts the activity of some genes and quiets others by adding and removing chemical tags—called methyl groups—to genes. Multiple research studies have suggested that this may be a mechanism through which a parent’s trauma could be imprinted in the genes of offspring, and the epigenetic effects could be multi-generational.

The field "touches on all the questions that humanity has asked since it was walking on this planet," says Moshe Szyf, a professor of pharmacology at McGill University. "How much of our destiny is predetermined? How much of it do we control?"

For some people, the concept that we can carry a legacy of trauma makes sense because it validates their sense that they are more than the sum of their experiences.

“If you feel you have been affected by a very traumatic, difficult, life-altering experience that your mother or father has had, there’s something to that,” says Rachel Yehuda, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience of trauma at Mount Sinai in New York. Her research points to a small epigenetic “signal” that a life-altering experience “doesn’t just die with you,” she says. “It has a life of its own afterwards in some form.”

To understand how emotional trauma can transcend generations, consider the distinction between the genome—the body’s full complement of DNA—and the epigenome. Isabelle Mansuy, professor in neuroepigenetics at the University of Zürich, likens it to the difference between hardware and software. You need the genome “hardware” to function. But it is epigenetic “software” that instructs how genes in the genome should behave.

“All the time, in every cell, every moment, […]

Can trauma be inherited through genes?