Epigenetic Alterations of Brain Neurotransmitter Receptors of Patients with Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders comprise a diverse set of psychiatric conditions. They do not arise from a single pathological pathway but from interactions among neurobiological susceptibility, environmental influences, and regulatory processes. Growing evidence indicates that traditional neurotransmitter-centered models cannot fully explain individual differences in disease risk, disease duration, or treatment response. Epigenetic regulation has thus emerged as a key mechanism linking environmental exposure to persistent alterations in gene expression without changing the DNA sequence. Through epigenetic modification, neurotransmitter receptor expression and function may be dysregulated within anxiety-related neural circuits. This review summarizes current findings on epigenetic modulation of neurotransmitter receptors in anxiety disorders, with particular emphasis on multigenic regulation, receptor-level mechanisms, and the unresolved barriers to clinical translation