Clinical studies find that childhood adversity and stress-ful life events in adulthood increase the risk for major depression and for suicide. The predispositions to either major depression or suicide are thought to depend on genetic risk factors or epigenetic effects. We investigated DNA methylation signatures postmortem in brains of suicides with diagnosis of major depressive disorder. This increased DNA methylation may be a significant contributor to the neuropathology and psychopathology underlying the risk of suicide in depression.
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