oxytocin and Reactive-Attachment-Disorder

The current review comprehensively examines recent advances in 2 innovative areas of neuroscience research on healthy adults regarding neuropsychosocial interactions on human cognition and behavior, as well as implications for counseling psychologists conducting research and in practice. Advances in how oxytocin influences prosocial behavior and the mitigation of social stress, and the influence of environmentally mediated gene expressions on the development of attachment disorders are surveyed and discussed in terms of how counseling psychologists might best integrate recent neuroscience research into a framework for therapeutic intervention.

Topics: Adult; Biomedical Research; Cognition; Counseling; Epigenesis, Genetic; Health Behavior; Humans; Neurosciences; Oxytocin; Psychology, Clinical; Reactive Attachment Disorder; Social Behavior; Stress, Psychological

Women exposed to childhood maltreatment (CM) are more likely to exhibit insensitive parenting, which may have consequences for their offspring's development. Variation in the oxytocin-receptor gene (OXTR) moderates risk of CM-associated long-term sequelae associated with mother-child attachment, although functionality of previously investigated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) remained elusive. Here, we investigated the role of OXTR rs237895, a brain tissue expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL), as a moderator of the relationship between CM and maternal behavior (MB) and the association between MB and offspring attachment security.. Of 110 women with information on rs237895 genotype (T-allele = 64, CC = 46), 107 had information on CM (CTQ) and 99 on standardized observer-based ratings of MB at 6 months postpartum (responsivity and detachment), which were used in principal component analysis to obtain a latent factor representing MB. Offspring (n = 86) attachment was evaluated at 12 months of age. Analyses predicting MB were adjusted for socioeconomic status, age, postpartum depression, and genotype-based ethnicity. Analyses predicting child attachment were adjusted for infant sex, socioeconomic status, and postpartum depression.. rs237895 significantly moderated the relationship between CM and MB (F. Women with a high OXTR expressing genotype are more susceptible to CM-related impairments in MB that, in turn, predict attachment security in their children, supporting the role of the OT system in the intergenerational transmission of risk associated with maternal CM.

Topics: Adult; Adult Survivors of Child Abuse; Alleles; Depression, Postpartum; Female; Gene-Environment Interaction; Genotype; Humans; Infant; Mother-Child Relations; Mothers; Object Attachment; Oxytocin; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Quantitative Trait Loci; Reactive Attachment Disorder; Receptors, Oxytocin; Regression Analysis; Stress, Psychological; Young Adult

This study examined maternal oxytocin receptor (OXTR, rs53576) genotype and cortisol secretion as moderators of the relation between maternal childhood maltreatment history and disorganized mother-infant attachment in the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP). A community sample of 314 mother-infant dyads completed the SSP at infant age 17 months. Self-reported maltreatment history more strongly predicted mother-infant attachment disorganization score and disorganized classification for mothers with more plasticity alleles of OXTR (G), relative to mothers with fewer plasticity alleles. Maltreatment history also more strongly predicted mother-infant attachment disorganization score and classification for mothers with higher SSP cortisol secretion, relative to mothers with lower SSP cortisol secretion. Findings indicate that maltreatment history is related to disorganization in the next generation, but that this relation depends on maternal genetic characteristics and cortisol.

Topics: Adult; Adult Survivors of Child Abuse; Alleles; Depression; Female; Gene-Environment Interaction; Genotype; Humans; Hydrocortisone; Infant; Male; Middle Aged; Mother-Child Relations; Mothers; Neuronal Plasticity; Object Attachment; Oxytocin; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Reactive Attachment Disorder; Receptors, Oxytocin; Stress, Psychological; Young Adult