• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Childhood Trauma Boosts Disease Risk, Expert Says

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 April 2005, 00:00 CDT

tara@wvgazette.com

Children who grow up in troubled homes are more likely to suffer as adults from diseases of the body, such as cancer and heart, lung and liver disease, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researcher who will give a free public lecture Monday at Charleston's Embassy Suites hotel.

Robert Anda, a medical epidemiologist, is one of several researchers conducting the "Adverse Childhood Experiences" study, which has eight years of data on 17,000 middle-class adults.

Childhood trauma leads to disease in two ways, Anda explained. In one scenario, a child suffers repeated stress, which actually affects the physical development of his or her brain. "That, in turn, leads to certain kinds of behaviors: smoking, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, suicide attempts," Anda said in a telephone interview. Those risky behaviors lead to further health problems - for example, a heavy drinker develops liver disease.

But there's another scenario the researchers have discovered: Children's stress seems to directly affect not only their brains, but also the physical development of their lungs, circulatory system and other organs.

Lung disease seems to follow that second pattern, Anda said. "It doesn't look like most of the lung disease is mediated through smoking," he said.

Adverse childhood experiences, according to the study, include growing up prior to age 18 in a household with:

* Recurrent physical or emotional abuse.

* Sexual abuse.

* Emotional or physical neglect.

* An alcohol or drug abuser.

* Someone who has been incarcerated.

* Someone who is chronically depressed, suicidal, institutionalized or mentally ill.

* Mother being treated violently.

* One or no biological parents.

"People who are traumatized tend to stay in a hyper-aroused state," Anda said. "Their stress chemicals tend to be higher.

"If that is sustained for years and years, it's logical to assume it will have a physiological impact on the body."

The more traumatic experiences a child has, the more problems they are likely to have later - "the more likely they are to be ... poisoned by their own stress chemicals," Anda said.

Besides the aforementioned health problems, Anda and his fellow researchers have also found links between childhood trauma and adult stroke, diabetes and skeletal fractures.

This year, they will be examining death records to see if childhood trauma leads to early death.

They are also studying how much all this costs the U.S. health- care system - as many as 70 years after a child was traumatized.

"How much of the cost of medical care lays hidden in adverse childhood experiences that most people never ask about, and most people never disclose?" Anda said.

Anda's lecture is scheduled from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

To contact staff writer Tara Tuckwiller, use e-mail or call 348- 5189.

Source: Charleston Gazette, The

More News in this Category