Lo sviluppo di psicopatologie come risultato di traumi vissuti in età precoce: il disturbo depressivo

The way an adult responds to social and environmental stimulations is determined by genetic factorsand life experiences occurring during development. The nervous system development, from conception to adulthood, is extremely complex: many biochemical processes must be coordinated precisely to ensure a normal mental and physical development of an individual, and the environment can signifi cantly affect the proper operation of such processes at these stages. Exposure to traumatic events at an early age, can cause pathological changes of neural development and behavior, such as the onset of depressive disorder in adulthood. In this context, the use of preclinical models represents a useful tool by which it is possible to identify behavioral changes induced by the exposure to early-life stress, as well as investigating the neurobiological correlates involved in the alterated behavioral response. Finally the opportunity to investigate molecular changes associated with various psychopathologies in the blood, both in humans and in rodents, makes the results obtained by this model highly translational.