Psychopathological consequences of maltreatment among children and adolescents: A systematic review of the GxE literature

In the last years, several studies focused on the role of Gene-Environment interactions (GxE) in influencing psychopathological outcomes among maltreated children and adolescents. These studies analysed the effect of different genetic variations.The aim of the present review is to provide an overview of studies investigating GxE effects among maltreated children and adolescents.A systematic literature review was performed by using the following keywords: "Child maltreatment" and "GxE", "Child maltreatment" and "Psychopathology", "Gene-Environment interaction", "Gene-environment correlation", "GxE and psychopathology", "Childhood trauma" and "Psychiatric symptoms", "Early adverse life events", "Early life stress", "Antisocial behaviour", "Depression", "Internalizing symptoms", through the following electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus and PsycINFO, from 2006 to 2017, finding a total of 31 papers.The present review confirm that maltreatment produces worse psychopathological outcomes (antisocial behaviour, depression, and other psychiatric traits) in subjects with a specific genetic vulnerability.Comprehending the pathways from child maltreatment to psychopathology in their full complexity will be essential to build efficacious preventive and therapeutic protocols.