The ripple effect of mental health on generations
Could embracing social connection transform our healthcare system for the better? What is the role of oxytocin or the only known hormone that is shared between two individuals in the process of bonding?
We often forget that emotional and psychological needs are as important as physical well-being. While focusing on cost-efficiency, our current healthcare system often neglects these crucial aspects, even leading to far-reaching consequences across generations.
Breaking the Cycle: How Bad Mental Health Can Affect Generations.
Healthcare is about more than just treating the here and now; it’s about understanding how our well-being today can shape the health of our families for generations to come. Epigenetic changes refer to environmentally-induced alterations that act like little switches turning genes on or off without changing the underlying DNA sequence, which can significantly impact an individual’s health outcomes.
One example of this is generational trauma, a concept that has been known by psychologists for quite some time. Despite numerous studies demonstrating that parental stress and depression can actually leave a mark on their children’s genes, population scientists and health policies often overlook this connection. During pregnancy, maternal stress and depression can elevate cortisol levels, a stress hormone that can cross the placenta and impact fetal development. These epigenetic modifications may alter gene expression and increase the risk of developing health conditions such as mental health disorders, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Additionally, prenatal stress and depression have been associated with a heightened risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, and developmental delays in children. Because a baby girl is born with all the egg cells she’ll ever have, her mom’s stress can even reach into the next generation, affecting her grandchildren’s health too.
“Complex traits of the brain require large studies, which has been done for the genome but not for the epigenetic landscape of cells; we have no idea how the environment of us and our cells influence our children and future generations.” -Prof. Oded Rehavi, Researcher of Transgenerational Inheritance. Interview with Prof. Andrew Hubermann
It is essential to consider the role of emotional factors in prenatal care and implement interventions to reduce their impact on offspring health. However, it is also promising that epigenetic modifications are responsive to external factors and, therefore, susceptible to intentional choices to improve health outcomes and potentially prevent or reverse harmful epigenetic changes.
Scientific Approaches to Understand Human Emotional Behavior: From Freud to AI
Behavior, specifically higher-order social behavior, has been one of the most challenging concepts for scientists to understand. This problem is partly because human behavior is a complex phenomenon influenced by a wide range of factors such as culture, upbringing, genetics, and personal experiences. Furthermore, ethical considerations limit the types of studies that can be performed on human subjects. There was a time when scientific methods were not believed to be suitable for investigating human behavior. This belief was prevalent during the early days of psychology when the field was heavily influenced by philosophical and introspective approaches pioneered by Sigmund Freud. Only recently, as in the early 20th century, did psychologists begin to adopt more scientific methods for studying human behavior.
Today, with the emergence of highly precise research methods in behavioral science, neuroscience, and molecular biology, as well as modern computing systems capable of processing vast amounts of data at incredible speeds, researchers can analyze and extract insights from massive datasets involving genetics, epigenetics, medical history, and psychological analyses. Moreover, advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have enabled researchers to automate the analysis of large datasets, leading to faster and more efficient data processing and even prediction of outcomes. Consequently, this has resulted in the development of advanced data analysis tools, such as deep learning neural networks, which can process massive amounts of data with high accuracy and precision.
Still, after decades of research, oxytocin is the only factor to date that has been implicated in social bonding, trust, empathy, and love. Oxytocin is also involved in various physiological processes such as reproduction, orgasm, childbirth, wound healing, stress resilience, maternal behavior, lactation, and emotional expression. Affectionately known as the “love hormone” or the “cuddle hormone,” oxytocin is primarily produced by the hypothalamus, a small control center situated just above the brainstem in the middle of the brain. Oxytocin deficiency has also been implicated in many health and mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, intergenerational trauma, autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.
Which begs the question: Is oxytocin as medicine the answer to all our emotional troubles?
Oxytocin’s Surprising Effects on Brain Development and Function Across Generations
After decades of oxytocin research, there is one thing we can say for sure. It is complicated. The presence of the oxytocin receptor is extremely variable across brain regions and cell types; it’s different between females and males, across the age span, and in sickness and health. However, without a doubt, oxytocin is incredibly well evolutionary conserved for a good reason.
In fact, even the simplest animals, like the larvae of C. elegans worms, can, for example, promote parental-offspring behavior mediated by oxytocin, making the parents leave food for them after they are hatched, even in scarce food scenarios, ensuring the survival of the species. Another study in mice demonstrated that female mice without oxytocin do not develop sensitive enough neurons to hear the calls of their offspring, causing them to abandon and neglect them. Ultimately, profound anxiolytic, anti-stress, and a plethora of pro-social effects of oxytocin have not only been revealed in laboratory animals but also in humans.
Nevertheless, clinical trials using nasally administered oxytocin to treat depression, stress, and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autistic spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, have shown inconsistent results. This inconsistency is probably caused by the lack of understanding of when, where and with what other partners oxytocin works. Unsurprisingly, we need to consider that the solutions might be more complex (or even simpler?) than giving people an injection or a whiff of the “love hormone.”
Turning On the Lightbulb: How Oxytocin Sparks Brain Activity.
Reflecting on the function of oxytocin, one of the most compelling findings I have recently encountered in scientific literature is the surprisingly recent (re-)appreciation of the significance of skin-to-skin contact between newborns and their mothers during the first hour after birth. This seemingly simple act yields an array of health benefits for both mother and child, which all can be attributed to the actions of oxytocin.
Research of skin-to-skin benefits after childbirth: UNICEF´s summary.
Throughout childbirth, the newborn experiences intense new stimuli, such as pain, pressure, light, noise, and air, which provoke the intense release of stress hormones. Consequently, the infant takes their first breath and screams their first cry out of frustration and emotional release. However, when the newborn is placed on the mother’s skin, oxytocin is secreted, providing powerful analgesic effects and counterbalancing the impacts of pain and stress hormones. As a result, the infant transitions into a relaxation phase. Intriguingly, elevated oxytocin levels during and following birth additionally initiate a series of convoluted neurological processes essential for the awakening of the infant’s senses, the establishment of the initial indications of consciousness, and subsequent priming of normal brain development.
The groundbreaking research led by Professor Yehezkel Ben-Ari on brain development and oxytocin has illuminated the vital role this hormone serves in the newborn progression toward alertness, body awareness, and consciousness. Prof. Ben-Ari uncovered a fascinating mechanism within the infant’s brain, termed “the GABA switch,” in which the fetal GABA-excitatory neurons transition to adult-like GABA-inhibitory neurons. This process initiates normal brain maturation, robust synapse formation, and neuronal activity. The GABA switch occurs twice: initially during birth, prompted by the mother’s surge of oxytocin, and subsequently during critical moments of maternal bonding and breastfeeding, progressively and permanently resulting in the GABA neurons becoming inhibitory. Owing to this oxytocin-induced process, newborns can exhibit a rudimentary form of consciousness by establishing vital eye contact with their mothers, demonstrating awareness of their environment and themselves.
Research findings indicate that individuals diagnosed with anxiety and mood disorders, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, depression, and epilepsy/seizures may encounter disruptions in brain development processes. These disruptions often result in an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory GABA neurons, potentially fostering atypical brain development and altered synapse formation, which impact their cognitive abilities for life. Presently, genetic mutations associated with these neurological disruptions account for only a portion of these disorders, leaving a substantial gap in the understanding of epigenetic/environmental causes.
In light of these findings, it is essential to re-evaluate current healthcare practices that overlook the role of oxytocin and human emotional needs in health and disease. If a simple act such as skin-to-skin contact between a mother and her child after birth can fundamentally change the mental health outcomes and overall health of both individuals, even across multiple generations, the damaging effects of poor humane treatment during other life-changing events can only be imagined. Providing emotional, social, and mental health support during health challenges will benefit all, enabling individuals to process and recover more quickly and fostering a healthier, more resilient society for current and future generations.
Sources:
World Health Organization. (2005). Promoting Mental Health: Concepts, Emerging Evidence, Practice. Geneva: WHO.
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