Bullied Twins, Serotonin, Blunted Response to Stress

[Such_Saturation]

Increased serotonin transporter gene (SERT) DNA methylation is associated with bullying victimization and blunted cortisol response to stress in childhood: a longitudinal study of discordant monozygotic twins.

Bullied twins had higher SERT DNA methylation at the age of 10 years compared with their non-bullied MZ co-twins. This group difference cannot be attributed to the children's genetic makeup or their shared familial environments because of the study design. Bullied twins also showed increasing methylation levels between the age of 5 years, prior to bullying victimization, and the age of 10 years whereas no such increase was detected in non-bullied twins across time. Moreover, children with higher SERT methylation levels had blunted cortisol responses to stress.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23217646

Specifically, bullied twins exhibited a blunted cortisol response compared with their nonbullied MZ co-twins, who showed the expected increase. This difference in cortisol response to stress could not be attributed to children's genetic makeup, their familial environments, pre-existing and concomitant individual factors, or the perception of stress and emotional response to the PST.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21621141

 

[Amazoniac]

Very interesting..
Thank you for sharing!

 

[Such_Saturation]

Yes it is fascinating... and somehow they found enough couples where only one had been bullied?

 

[Amazoniac]

I'm not sure about the credibility of this, but I've seen some studies that claim that one of the twins receives a toxic load flush from the mother more than another, usually the first that comes out at birth. This early exposure could contribute to the behavioural traits that determines later in life if one is going to be weak or not..

 

[Such_Saturation]

I'm not sure about the credibility of this, but I've seen some studies that claim that one of the twins receives a toxic load flush from the mother more than another, usually the first that comes out at birth. This early exposure could contribute to the behavioural traits that determines later in life if one is going to be weak or not..

And what if you aren't a twin

 

[Amazoniac]

I guess this would apply to the eldest and so on..

 

[Explorer]

Does this mean that those who got bullied, in the future are more stress-resistant against that specific type of stress, and thus because of not releasing that many stress hormones it is a good thing or it is a bad thing in some way?

Increasing SERT DNA Methylation means the body is more effective at SERT production thus they have less Serotonin long term or it means the opposite?