Epigenetics of Stress and Stress Disorders

Dr. Nagy Youssef is an Associate Professor at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, GA, and Psychiatry Educator for medical students at the Office of Academic Affairs. His primary academic activities involve educational activities, curricula, and educational program research and development. His clinical research interests include mechanistic and therapeutic innovation for treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders and suicide prevention. He is especially interested in brain modulation therapeutics including brain stimulation as well as resilience boosting to prevent or treat severe psychiatric disorders and suicide. He has conducted research studies (as PI or co-investigator) especially in areas of treatment-resistant mood disorders and PTSD in civilians, veterans, and active duty personnel, and has presented his research in several scientific peer-reviewed publications, published abstracts, and in lectures nationally and internationally. Dr. Youssef also supervises students and residents in treating patients with a wide array of psychiatric conditions in the outpatient clinic.

1. The physiology of stress and the human body’s response to stress 2. Posttraumatic stress disorder: Diagnosis, measurement, and assessment  3 .Nikola Tesla: An autobiographical case study of trauma and resilience 4. Management of posttraumatic stress disorder 5. Depression and epigenetics: Epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and assessment

6. Depression management and pharmacoepigenetics

7. Psychotherapy for stress disorders: A military perspective

8. How stress affects gene expression through epigenetic modifications

9. Proposed effect of epigenetic alterations on stress-related disorders

10. PTSD and physiology: The long-term effects of PTSD and relation to epigenetics, physical health, and chronic diseases

11. Epigenomic biomarkers of posttraumatic stress disorder

12. Adversity across time: Do sensitive periods across the life span determine adversity-induced epigenetic changes?

13. PTSD, telomeres, and aging

14. Accelerated aging in mood disorders

15. Epigenetics, stress, and depression

16. Capturing the epigenome: Differences among blood, saliva, and brain samples

17. Posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, and noncoding RNAs

18. MicroRNAs in posttraumatic stress disorder

19. Potential transgenerational epigenetic effects of prolonged stress and psychological trauma

20. Targeting epigenetics as future treatments of trauma- and stress-or-related disorders. Epidrugs and epinutraceuticals