Adult Survivors of Child Abuse

Publication Title: 
Biological Psychiatry

BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with increased risk for age-related diseases and early mortality. An accelerated rate of biological aging could contribute to this increased risk. To investigate, we assessed leukocyte telomere length (LTL), an emerging marker of biological age, in men and women with and without PTSD. We also examined childhood trauma, a risk factor for both PTSD and short LTL, as a potential contributor to short LTL in PTSD.

Author(s): 
O'Donovan, Aoife
Epel, Elissa
Lin, Jue
Wolkowitz, Owen
Cohen, Beth
Maguen, Shira
Metzler, Thomas
Lenoci, Maryann
Blackburn, Elizabeth
Neylan, Thomas C.
Publication Title: 
Biological Psychiatry

BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with increased risk for age-related diseases and early mortality. An accelerated rate of biological aging could contribute to this increased risk. To investigate, we assessed leukocyte telomere length (LTL), an emerging marker of biological age, in men and women with and without PTSD. We also examined childhood trauma, a risk factor for both PTSD and short LTL, as a potential contributor to short LTL in PTSD.

Author(s): 
O'Donovan, Aoife
Epel, Elissa
Lin, Jue
Wolkowitz, Owen
Cohen, Beth
Maguen, Shira
Metzler, Thomas
Lenoci, Maryann
Blackburn, Elizabeth
Neylan, Thomas C.
Publication Title: 
Psychosomatic Medicine

OBJECTIVE: To examine epigenetic processes linking childhood sex abuse to symptoms of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in adulthood and to investigate the possibility that the link between childhood sex abuse and deoxyribonucleic acid methylation at the 5HTT promoter might represent a pathway of long-term impact on symptoms of ASPD. METHOD: Deoxyribonucleic acid was prepared from lymphoblast cell lines derived from 155 female participants in the latest wave of the Iowa Adoptee Study.

Author(s): 
Beach, Steven R. H.
Brody, Gene H.
Todorov, Alexandre A.
Gunter, Tracy D.
Philibert, Robert A.
Publication Title: 
Psychoneuroendocrinology

This mini-review refers to recent findings on psychobiological long-term consequences of childhood trauma and adverse living conditions. The continuum of trauma-provoked aftermath reaches from healthy adaptation with high resilience, to severe maladjustment with co-occurring psychiatric and physical pathologies in children, adolescents and adults. There is increasing evidence of a strong interconnectivity between genetic dispositions, epigenetic processes, stress-related hormonal systems and immune parameters in all forms of (mal)-adjustment to adverse living conditions.

Author(s): 
Ehlert, Ulrike
Publication Title: 
Neuroimmunomodulation

Childhood maltreatment has been linked to enhanced vulnerability to psychiatric pathologies in adult life, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous works have reported cogent neuroendocrine and immune changes related to adult traumatic events (war survivors, refugees, etc.), but little information is known regarding the impact of early-life stress (ELS) in adult physiology. Here, we review the neuroendocrine and immunological changes commonly observed in PTSD, focusing on the long-term implications of ELS.

Author(s): 
Wieck, AndrÈa
Grassi-Oliveira, Rodrigo
Hartmann do Prado, Carine
Teixeira, Antonio L.
Bauer, MoisÈs E.
Publication Title: 
Current Pharmaceutical Design

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is all too frequent among western societies, with an estimated prevalence of 10 to 15%. CM associates with increased risk of several psychiatric disorders, and therefore represents a worrying public and socioeconomic burden. While associated clinical outcomes are well characterized, determining by which mechanisms early-life adverse experiences affect mental health over the lifespan is a major challenge.

Author(s): 
Lutz, Pierre-Eric
Almeida, Daniel
Fiori, Laura M.
Turecki, Gustavo
Publication Title: 
The British Journal of Psychiatry: The Journal of Mental Science

There is now a well-established link between childhood maltreatment and psychosis. It is, however, unclear what the mechanisms are by which this occurs. Here, we propose a pathway linking the experience of childhood maltreatment with biological changes in the brain and suggest a psychological intervention to ameliorate its effects.

Author(s): 
Barker, Victoria
Gumley, Andrew
Schwannauer, Matthias
Lawrie, Stephen M.
Publication Title: 
Translational Psychiatry

Stress, particularly when experienced early in life, can have profound implications for mental health. Previous research covering various tissues such as the brain, suggests that the detrimental impact of early-life stress (ELS) on mental health is mediated via epigenetic modifications including DNA methylation. Genes of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis--in particular, the glucocorticoid receptor (hGR) gene--stand out as key targets for ELS.

Author(s): 
Radtke, K. M.
Schauer, M.
Gunter, H. M.
Ruf-Leuschner, M.
Sill, J.
Meyer, A.
Elbert, T.
Publication Title: 
Journal of Psychiatric Research

Common variants of the FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5) gene are implicated in psychotic and other disorders, via their role in regulating glucocorticoid receptor (GR) receptor sensitivity and effects on the broader function of the HPA system in response to stress.

Author(s): 
Green, Melissa J.
Raudino, Alessandra
Cairns, Murray J.
Wu, Jingqin
Tooney, Paul A.
Scott, Rodney J.
Carr, Vaughan J.
Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank
Publication Title: 
Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Despite evidence for heritable variation in cannabis involvement and the discovery of cannabinoid receptors and their endogenous ligands, no consistent patterns have emerged from candidate endocannabinoid (eCB) genetic association studies of cannabis involvement. Given interactions between eCB and stress systems and associations between childhood stress and cannabis involvement, it may be important to consider childhood adversity in the context of eCB-related genetic variation.

Author(s): 
Carey, Caitlin E.
Agrawal, Arpana
Zhang, Bo
Conley, Emily D.
Degenhardt, Louisa
Heath, Andrew C.
Li, Daofeng
Lynskey, Michael T.
Martin, Nicholas G.
Montgomery, Grant W.
Wang, Ting
Bierut, Laura J.
Hariri, Ahmad R.
Nelson, Elliot C.
Bogdan, Ryan

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