DNA methylation and childhood maltreatment: From animal models to human studies

• Childhood maltreatment is among the strongest predictors of psychiatric pathology.
• DNA methylation mediates life-long neurobiological effects of childhood maltreatment.
• Animal and human studies reveal conserved adaptations to early-life adversity.

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has estimated prevalence among Western societies between 10% and 15%. As CM associates with increased risk of several psychiatric disorders, early age of illness onset, increased comorbidity and negative clinical outcome, it imposes a major public health, social and economic impact. Although the clinical consequences of CM are well characterized, a major challenge remains to understand how negative early-life events can affect brain function over extended periods of time. We review here both animal and human studies indicating that the epigenetic mechanism of DNA methylation is a crucial mediator of early-life experiences, thereby maintaining life-long neurobiological sequelae of CM, and strongly determining psychopathological risk.