Browsing by Subject "lapsuudenaikainen kaltoinkohtelu"

Background and aim of the study. Antisocial behavior is a complex phenotype describing combinations of criminal or aggressive behavior opposing the social rules and symptoms of antisocial personality disorder. Antisocial behavior seems to be highly heritable, but the mechanisms of heritability remain poorly understood. One of the best studied risk factors is maltreatment in childhood, but it seems that biological factors can create higher vulnerability to harmful experiences and so heighten the risk for antisocial behavior. Differences in levels of MAOA enzyme, caused by MAOA gene variants, has been proposed to be one possible biological factor moderating the interaction between childhood maltreatment and antisocial behavior. Especially the low activity variant, MAOA-L-genotype, has been proposed to increase the risk as the complete ineffectiveness of MAOA enzyme has been shown to led to impulsive aggression. The aim of this review is to examine how childhood maltreatment and MAOA genotype can heighten risk for antisocial behavior across the lifespan. Research methods. A search for relevant studies was made using terms ”MAOA” or ”Monoamine oxidase A” in connection with ”antisociality”, ”antisocial behavior”, ”antisocial lifespan”, ”violence” and ”childhood maltreatment” or ”childhood adversities”. The databases used were Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus and Helka. Results and conclusions. The MAOA gene variants did not create a risk for antisocial behavior, but when a MAOA-L-carrier is exposed to childhood maltreatment, the risk became remarkably higher. MAOA-H genotype seems to improve resilience against harms of maltreatment. Research on topic has resulted in quite mixed results, especially in populations other than white males. The reasons behind the high heredity of antisocial behavior remain unknown, but it seems that biological factors and childhood experiences are equally crucial in development of antisocial behavior.