How Traumatic Childhood Experiences Damages The Brain

Childhood trauma, both emotional and psychological happen in response to extremely stressful life events that destroys a child's sense of security, thus creating a feeling of vulnerability and helplessness in a disturbing and dangerous world.

The trauma causing experience most commonly includes a threat to life or safety. But any experience that renders a child feeling alone and overwhelmed can be traumatic, even if the child does not experience physical violence. It's not what happened to the child, but her or his emotional experience and perception of the event that is crucial.

These events can have a profound and long-lasting impact on a child. The children develop a perception of the world as a very unsafe and scary place. If childhood trauma remains unresolved, the fear and helplessness continues into adulthood and create the possibility of additional trauma.

Childhood trauma increases the risk of developing chronic diseases during adulthood. The brains of children who've experienced emotional abuse or neglect can change physically.

MRIs of the brain have found that childhood stress can lead to the development of depression.

A study led by scientists at Trinity College in Dublin. Ireland was recently published in the scientific journal, Neuropsychopharmacology. The researchers noted, "Improved neurobiological understanding shows how stress and genetic variants interact and affect brain structure and function. In turn it demonstrates how it could affect a person's propensity for depression. The structural alterations of the brain are associated with a higher vulnerability to depression and a more chronic course of the depression might be associated with further structural changes.

"Early intervention in the case of major depression is necessary to increase the change of a good disease outcome. Fortunately depression can be treated very well by psychotherapy and anti-depressant medication. Moreover, prevention strategies for childhood neglect and misuses are highly important to increase public health and to avoid in later life for these individuals, the burden of major depression."

The study involved 24 patients (aged 18-65) being treated as inpatients for major depression. They were evaluated using high-resolution structural MRI and childhood stress assessments. Special analysis programs were used to measure brain regions.

These patients were compared with 27 healthy control subjects from the local community who were matched for age and gender. Further research is needed in a larger number of patients and controls to identify the underlying causes of depression and stress-gene interaction on brain structure as well as function.