Childhood Abuse and Depression - Anxiety Lives On
It has been established that nature and nurture should not be
taken as enemies or total opposites, but as two intertwined
realities that function together to make up the human
experience. Nature was designed for nurture.
Many recent and notable studies have documented the effects that
early childhood experience can have on both the physical and
chemical makeup of the brain. In particular, childhood abuse
and/or neglect can permanently alter an individual's physiology.
These physiological changes may lead to a greater likelihood of
the person suffering from depression or anxiety later in life.
Groundbreaking results from a major study of depressed women in
the US have shown that women who were abused as children have
abnormally elevated hormonal responses to stress compared to
women with no history of abuse. It suggests that childhood abuse
is associated with persistent hyperactivity of the hormonal
system associated with the stress response and this may cause
greater vulnerability to psychiatric disorders in adulthood.
The study, headed by Dr. Charles Nemeroff at Emory University,
looked at women diagnosed with clinical depression who had been
abused as children; depressed women with no past abuse; and
healthy women. Each person was given a moderately stressful
experience and asked to perform simple mathematic problems aloud
for a panel of stalwart non expressive judges.
Cortisol and ACTH (two hormones that play a critical role in a
person's response to stress) were measured in each subject while
she completed the task. It was found that the levels of these
hormones were especially pronounced in women who were abused as
children and who also had current depression. In fact, their
ACTH response indicators were more than six times those of the
healthy women.
In addition to high levels of stress hormones, other studies by
the same group found that women who had been abused as children
had abnormal development of the brain's hippocampus, which
suggests another physical result of early abuse that could lead
to permanent brain abnormalities in later life.
Other brain structures can also be affected by early abuse or
neglect. While the basic unit of the brain is in place at birth,
neuronal pathways for the body's reaction to different
experiences are still developing.
There is a critical period of time in a child's first three
years of life during which most of these pathways are formed. If
a child receives primarily negative stimulation early in life,
pathways for forming lasting relationships and responding to
positive experiences can be stunted or destroyed. While this may
be a reaction to help the child survive, it can cause permanent
difficulties for the individual.
Other research shows that the brains of severely neglected
children tend to be smaller than average with underdeveloped
areas in the cortex. The long term implications of this are
still being examined, but it shows one more way in which nurture
or lack of it can affect a person's biological make-up.
The knowledge that nature and nurture are two crucial aspects to
a person's health will undoubtedly prove to be a very useful
tool in the research and treatment of psychiatric illness and
may lead to even more effective treatments in the future.
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Thank you Dr Leo Kady