Early research on epigenetic mechanisms in psychopathology in humans has been promising.[17] Studies have demonstrated epigenetic modification in the etiology of autism,[18] schizophrenia,[19] bipolar disorder,[19,20] depression,[20,21] anxiety disorders,[22] and suicide.[23,24] Other work has explicitly linked epigenetic modifications to functional changes in gene expression.[24] Ernst and colleagues, for instance, studied post-mortem brain tissue from suicide completers and matched controls and found significant differences in epigenetic modification at a locus of interest in the frontal cortices of subjects who had completed suicide as compared to controls, and that the frequency of modification at specific sites were associated with downregulation of the gene-product of interest.[24]
