Childhood trauma Lifelong lousy health

Health is affected by childhood trauma lifelong

03/02/2015

If children have to experience particularly stressful events, they may have consequences for their physical health and living conditions even when they are adults. This is the conclusion of a study recently published.

Significant health consequences
A study by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale) concludes that particularly stressful childhood experiences can have a significant impact on health and living conditions even in adulthood. The results of the study were recently published in the „Proceedings“ the US National Academy of Sciences („PNAS“) released. Earlier studies have shown that a wide variety of childhood complications can increase the incidence of disease and mortality in adulthood. And especially psychosocial stress. However, as the news agency dpa reports, the new investigation, according to a German expert, is characterized by its high quality and demonstrates that early traumatic experiences „to get under the skin“ can.

Stressful events in the family environment
In the study, the team of scientists around the physician Cristina Barboza Solis examined the relationship between negative childhood experiences (ACE) and the so-called allostatic load (AL). It is reported that AL is understood to mean the consequences of all stressors or stress-inducing factors that a person experiences in life and which, for example, show themselves as chronic stress. For their analysis, the researchers used data from the British „National Child Development Study“, in which 7,535 people are registered in the long term, who were born in 1958 in the UK. The scientists focused on those participants who experienced more than two stressful family events between the ages of seven and 16 years. These included, among other things, neglect, malnutrition or the mental illness of a parent.

Serious negative psychosocial childhood experiences
At the age of 44 years, the biomedical data of this group reported to have "a high allostatic burden". The authors studied the health behavior of the study participants, their body mass index (BMI) and their socioeconomic status at 23 and 33 years, to find out what factors caused the described burden. It showed that "in men 59 percent of the increased allostatic burden was related to unhealthy behavior". And in women, "76 percent of the increased allostatic burden was associated with smoking, overweight, low education, and low income." Therefore, the researchers concluded that "serious negative psychosocial childhood experiences are likely to affect health in different ways over the long term." In the study they write: „Groups experiencing negative childhood experiences can bear the cost of their lives, as evidenced by their physiological wear and tear in adulthood.“

Experiences go „under the skin“
For the medical director of the Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital Ulm, Harald Gündel, the study is a big step forward scientifically and methodologically. According to dpa, he said that in childhood „shaped many biological control circuits and processes“ become, „have consequences for lifelong health“. Earlier studies would have pointed in the same direction, but not with this quality. Gündel, who is also a member of the German Society for Psychosomatic Medicine and Medical Psychotherapy, said: „The studies at different levels showed that early traumatic experiences literally 'get under the skin' and have biological consequences, albeit with a time lag.“

Lifelong impact
Numerous studies have dealt with the effects of traumatic childhood experiences in the past. For example, people who were severely neglected or maltreated as children later became more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders or obesity. A tendency towards alcoholism, drug addiction and violence has also been linked to childhood trauma. (Ad)

Martin Schemm