The Dalhousie University Department of Psychiatry's Sixteenth Annual Research Day attracted many students, residents, and faculty from the department, as well as a few individuals living with psychiatric illness, local private-practice psychiatrists, and two senior managers from the Nova Scotia Department of Health.
Biology and Environment Interactions
The day’s plenary speaker, Dr. Michael Meaney of McGill University, gave a well-received and detailed presentation on how environmental cues can influence the expression of a specific gene – in this case, the glucocorticoid receptor gene.
In his fascinating talk, Dr. Meaney outlined many years of painstaking research that has shown how maternal tactile stimulation (licking/grooming) of rat pups during the first hours of their lives has a significant effect on the level of methylation of a promoter region in the glucocorticoid receptor gene that binds the transcription factor, NGFI-A.
Dr. Meany’s presentation reminded me of a line I once read in Dr. David J. Miklowitz’s book, The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide: “As you read on [in the book], try to think of biology and environment as interacting with each other – you’ll have an easier time making choices about treatments if you can keep these multiple causes of bipolar disorder in mind.”
I'll post more about Dr. Meaney's research at a later date.
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