Source: Found here
In The News:
• Chronic stress and racial trauma have been linked to epigenetic changes in the brain, which can affect gene expression and increase the risk of mental health disorders.
• Research has shown that exposure to racial discrimination can alter the expression of genes involved in stress response, leading to changes in gene function and increasing the risk of depression and anxiety.
• Studies have found that individuals who experience racial trauma are more likely to develop epigenetic marks on genes involved in stress response, which can be passed on to subsequent generations.
• The epigenetic changes associated with racial trauma can also affect gene expression in the brain, altering the structure and function of neural circuits involved in emotional processing and memory.
• Environmental stressors, “such as racial discrimination.”.. can also affect gene expression in the brain by altering the activity of key transcription factors, “leading to changes in gene function and increasing the risk of mental health disorders.”
• Further research is needed to fully understand the epigenetic mechanisms underlying the link between racial trauma and mental health disorders, but the existing evidence suggests that epigenetic biological evidence exists that links these two factors. Here are some real news headlines with similar subject or categorization: • “Stress and trauma can reprogram DNA… study says” (The Guardian)
• “Epigenetic changes linked to depression in people of color” (National Institute of Mental Health)
• “Racial trauma affects not just the mind, but the —” (The New York Times)
• “Epigenetics may help explain racial disparities in mental health” (Psychiatric News)
• “Chronic stress can reshape brain’s structure and function, study finds” (Science Daily)
• “Epigenetic study sheds light on effects of racial discrimination on mental health” (Harvard Medical School Gazette)
While PTSD is a form of chronic stress where the initial stressful event has passed, other forms of chronic stress arise when the event is ongoing, such as racial trauma.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) overlooks this experience, despite plenty of people trying to figure out how to live with the effects of racial trauma in a resilient way—choosing a response to chronic societal stress that leads to growth rather than harm. While the exclusion of racial trauma from that official diagnostic handbook can make it difficult to receive validating, effective mental health support for it, adding it in may not be the answer either. Some experts worry that putting racial trauma in the DSM would dismiss people’s experiences in other ways—namely by pathologizing an adaptive response to an unjust world.
Despite the open debate about formalizing psychiatric treatment for racial trauma , cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy are among the current mental health care options best suited to helping people live their healthiest lives within the realities of systemic racism. The hallmarks of these mental health interventions are to build healthy mindsets and coping strategies to help a person thrive amid challenges. This approach differs from psychoanalysis , for example, which tends to concern itself with delving into how past experiences have shaped us.
Partnering with a therapist who fully engages with a client’s background can add an extra layer of effectiveness to cognitive and dialectical behavioral therapies—whether it’s because therapist and client share an identity, or because the therapist has training in cultural responsiveness. McClendon hopes to see the latter as an increasing norm in the field. However, the realities of accessing this type of mental health care can present their own set of stressors.
