Summary: Childhood trauma significantly increases the risk of being diagnosed with a mental health disorder later in life. For children who experienced emotional abuse, the most prevalent disorder reported was anxiety. Trauma also increased the risks of psychosis, OCD, and bipolar disorder. Significantly, those who experienced trauma during childhood were 15 times more likely to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder later in life.
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A study led by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute links psychological trauma in childhood with a higher risk of developing some type of mental disorder years later.
Suffering psychological trauma during childhood significantly increases the risk of developing a mental disorder in adulthood. Specifically, up to three times, according to a recent study led by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, published in the journal European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.
The study analyzes the fourteen reviews and meta-analyses published to date in specialized journals on this topic, and is the first to take into account the full range of existing mental disorders.
In total, the studies analyzed incorporate more than 93,000 cases, revealing a direct relationship between suffering psychological trauma in childhood and the risk of developing a mental pathology later in life.
“This is the strongest evidence to date that psychological trauma is indeed a risk factor for later mental illness,” says lead author Dr. Benedikt Amann, a researcher with the Mental Health Research Group at the IMIM-Hospital. del Mar and the Mental Health CIBER (CIBERSAM).
The most common childhood traumas are emotional, physical and sexual abuse, as well as emotional or physical neglect and bullying, although there are many others.
Suffering one of these situations damages the brain, causing both physical and psychological consequences in the form of various disorders. In the case of emotional abuse, the most frequent trauma is associated with the most prevalent disorder in the population, anxiety.
But there is also a relationship between childhood traumas and other pathologies, such as psychosis, which is linked to all traumas, obsessive-compulsive disorder or bipolar disorder.
The risk of suffering a borderline personality disorder increases up to fifteen times in the case of having experienced a trauma during childhood.
Trauma in adulthood is also associated with a fourfold increased risk of a later mental disorder. The researchers point out, however, that there is less evidence of this type of pathology.
Study the victim’s history
Given these results, Bridget Hogg, researcher at IMIM-Hospital del Mar, psychologist and first author of the study, believes that patients need an approach that not only takes into account physical factors, but also their history.
In this sense, “it is necessary to guide the patient through his life story, so that he really reviews what has happened to him. Currently we question what does not work, but not what has happened in his life, because that requires opening potentially painful topics and is avoided ”.
The study also highlights that other traumas such as catastrophes, violent deaths or family abuse can affect people, generating structural and functional changes in the brain that open the door to future mental disorders.
In addition, for people with this type of pathology who have suffered previous traumas, the course of the disease is worse. For these reasons, Dr. Amann calls for action.
“On the one hand, we must treat the psychological trauma of our patients, but we must also act in the political and social sphere and invest more in prevention. For example, educating families and implementing programs to prevent bullying, which is a very important risk factor when it comes to suffering from a mental disorder, both for those who receive it and for those who perpetrate it”, he points out.
About this research news in neurodevelopment and mental health
Author: press office
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Contact: Press Office – IMIM
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original research: Closed access.
“Psychological trauma as a transdiagnostic risk factor for mental disorder: an overview meta-analysis” by Bridget Hogg et al. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
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Summary
Psychological trauma as a transdiagnostic risk factor for mental disorder: an overview meta-analysis
This overview is the first to systematically examine psychological trauma as a transdiagnostic risk factor in psychiatric conditions. Pubmed, Scopus, and PsycNET databases were searched from inception to 01/05/2021 for systematic reviews/meta-analyses evaluating the association between psychological trauma and at least one diagnosed mental disorder.
We recalculated the odds ratio (OR), then classified the association as convincing, highly suggestive, suggestive, or weak, based on the number of cases and controls with and without psychological trauma, random effects. p value, 95% confidence interval of the largest study, heterogeneity between studies, 95% prediction interval, small study effect, and excessive significance bias.
Additional outcomes were the association between specific types of trauma and specific mental disorders, and a sensitivity analysis for childhood trauma. Transdiagnosis was assessed using the TRANSD criteria.
The review was previously registered with Prospero CRD42020157308 and followed the PRISMA/MOOSE guidelines.
Fourteen reviews met the inclusion criteria, comprising 16,277 cases and 77,586 controls. Psychological trauma met the TRANSD criteria as a transdiagnostic factor in different criteria and diagnostic spectra.
There was highly suggestive evidence of an association between psychological trauma at any time and any mental disorder (OR = 2.92) and between childhood trauma and any mental disorder (OR = 2.90).
Regarding specific types of trauma, convincing evidence linked physical abuse (OR = 2.36) and highly suggestive evidence linked sexual abuse (OR = 3.47) with a range of mental disorders, and convincing evidence linked emotional abuse to anxiety disorders (OR = 3.05); there were no data for emotional abuse with other disorders.
These findings highlight the importance of preventing early traumatic events and providing trauma-informed care in early intervention and psychiatric services.
