By Joseph Brownstein
While it may not come as a surprise that survivors of childhood traumas have more difficult lives, a new study says that those children can also expect their lives to be on average, almost 20 years shorter.
A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that children who experience six or more traumatic events in their childhood — events that can include emotional, physical or sexual abuse or household dysfunction — have an average lifespan 19 years shorter than those of their counterparts who do not suffer that degree of childhood trauma.
“The stressors tend to accumulate in people’s lives, and it appears that affects the way they develop and can affect the way they think and their emotional control,” said Dr. Robert Anda, who has served as the co-primary investigator on the CDC’s Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study.
Share This Post!
The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Developing Bipolar Disorder
By Yann Quidé, Leonardo Tozzi, Mark Corcoran, Dara M Cannon, Maria R Dauvermann Childhood trauma (CT) has been repeatedly linked to earlier onset and greater severity of bipolar disorder (BD) in adulthood. However, such knowledge [...]
Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse in the #MeToo Era
By Nickolas Agathis, MD Do you keep up with any modern social movements, such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter or #KeepFamiliesTogether? The conversations surrounding them are still grabbing widespread attention through social media [...]
Immigrant Health is Interpersonal
By Amanda Venta, PhD Waves of Latinx immigration to the United States have changed in recent decades, and our scientific literature is only beginning to catch up. Regional violence and unrest [...]
Essential Elements of a Trauma-Informed Juvenile Justice System
NCTSN Trauma-informed policies and procedures make juvenile justice organizations safer and more effective by ensuring the physical and psychological safety of all youth, family members, and staff and promoting their recovery [...]
How Childhood Trauma Can Impact the Brain
Written by Kaytee Gillis, LCSW A recent study published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging finds that childhood trauma can lead to disruptions in two main regions of the brain, the default mode network (DMN) and [...]
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Missed Diagnosis
National Institute of Health Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is frequently under-diagnosed in maltreated samples. Protective services information is critical for obtaining complete trauma histories and determining whether to survey PTSD symptoms [...]