Genetics Vs Environment Case Study

Term Essay: Genetics v. Environment One major obscurity surrounding mental illness is its etiology. The two main causes that have shown the greatest promise in unlocking this secret are: genetic and environmental. The term gene-environment (GxE) annotates either conditions in which the impact of the genotype on health are dependent on conditions of the environment or to restraint, by genetic influences, of the consequence of the environment on health (Reiss, Leve, Neiderhiser, 2013). GxE studies suggest that causes for mental health are not either/or but both genetic and environmental. Formerly, assuming someone’s genetic makeup was to blame for mental illness, gave victims an easy target to direct their liability on to, but also a captor the promise of no escape. The main

111). For example, in a case study by Leve, Kerr, and Shaw (2010), a sample of children that were adopted at birth and studied for the early signs of genetic risk for externalizing behavior in mature life. One of the things they monitored was the infants’ ability to self-soothe in frustrating situations. The research showed that the only cases in which the infant was unable to self-soothe were when depression was evident in the adoptive mother. The children who were unable to pacify themselves also showed evidence of biological predispositions to be more sensitive to stressful environments. Specific polymorphisms have been identified that would lend themselves to increasing sensitivity to anxiety-provoking conditions. These polymorphisms have shown promise of revealing a neurobiological mechanism that would make a person more susceptible to reacting poorly in adverse environments (Champoux, Bennett, & Shannon et al, 2002; Caspi, Sugden, & Moffitt et al,