Latest Research into Childhood Trauma

What’s the point of doing posts if what we read is out of date ? Would I drink a cold cup of delicious Latte? Well no …( depends how desperate I am for a caffeine shot ..also there are iced lattes …oh you get the point !). So its really a good idea to keep ourselves up to date and thats what Ill be doing every six months , I will post the latest research round up and how it impacts us as Trauma or Anxiety sufferers.

I couldn’t find a picture about being up to date … so here is a picture of a couple on date …..

Im going to start with a paper from the Institute of Psychiatry ,Psychology and Neuroscience at Kings College London together with the City University of New York . The research reported on July5 th 2023 , is really interesting , it’s a longitudinal study ( taking data over time from different data points rom the same individuals ) involving 1,196 participants under the age of 40 . They found that memory is key in predicting the impact of the trauma in later life . This is really groundbreaking research , it effectively means that if you were abused as a child under 12 and subsequently reported it, you are more likely to develop anxiety or depression over the next decade than others of similar age who have no memory of the abuse . This includes those who have court records to prove the abuse , as they cannot recall the abuse they have less chance of developing mental health issues as a result.

To put the above in perspective I will use a direct quote from Andrea Danese , Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Kings London. ( it’s a long quote , but best explained by Professor Danese ). ” Our study reveals that how a person perceives and remembers experiences of childhood abuse or neglect has greater implications on future emotional disorders than the experience itself. The findings show that even in the absence of documented evidence of childhood maltreatment , clinicians can use information provided by their client to identify those at greater risk for subsequent mental health difficulties . The findings also suggest that early interventions that help cope with memories of abuse and/or neglect may prevent emotional problems later on”.

It is possible that emotional disorders that participants already had at the start of the research could negatively bias their own memories of events . For example , those with emotional disorders could be more likely to recall negative memories or events. It is however a great starting point for further research that could impact future treatment of childhood trauma.

Pain and ACEs

Another bit of groundbreaking research was published in December 2023 , this study was undertaken over ( wait for it ) ….75 years ! It is a huge study involving 826,452 adults and was published in the peer reviewed , European Journal of Psychotraumatology. Tracking individuals over a long time the study reveals that individuals who have been exposed to childhood trauma are at an increased risk of experiencing chronic pain and pain-related disability in adulthood. This is not great news and for those us who experienced physical abuse the risk is even higher. Pain the study points out is the leading cause of disability worldwide and affects over a third of the population the UK .

What sort of percentages are we talking about ? Individuals the report states who were directly the subject of ACEs are more than 45% more likely to suffer from chronic pain in adulthood than those who did not suffer an ACE. This significantly increases with the number of reported ACEs up to four. The report now asks for further study into biological mechanisms that are affected by ACEs causing pain in later life and ways that we can mitigate the impact.

Brain structure and ACEs

Published in Molecular Psychiatry in October 2023 the study led by Dr Kate Merritt , University College London along with The University of Bristol and Cardiff , this looks at trauma and brain structure.

The findings reported that those who experienced childhood trauma ( this also included pre/perinatal complications as well as ACEs ) were more likely to experience psychosis ( sufferers might experience hallucinations or delusions) . For those who have experienced ACEs their risk of developing psychosis is three times the normal and have smaller volumes in the brain region called the insulation. The insulae , just as way of an explanation is often associated with consciousness and functions linked to emotions and mood regulation). Its is also worth noting as the paper points out that this region is also altered in schizophrenia patients ….just full of good news this one!. The paper also points out that the striatum (basal ganglia of the brain ) is larger in Trauma sufferers and this area is responsible for detecting threats.

The above study also a longitudinal piece of research looked at 400 detailed brain scans . Its worth mentioning that one risk factor was not associated with brain changes , but as the ACEs increase then so does the likelihood.

Not all good news for meditation ….

This report is a bit older , but I missed it first time around and I would like to post it here if thats ok? The reason Id like to mention this one is that it goes against everything else I have read , it shows that science is not this neatly packaged product that provides proof to what we believe.

You only have to search for meditation on the world wide wait and ‘ change your brain in eight weeks will spring out at you ‘. It sounds fantastic , undertake daily meditation and in eight weeks we will see results so profound that it will make physical changes to our brains. A paper published in the Scientist by Richard Davidson , a neuroscientist at Wisconsin-Madison University says that is just false. Thats not to say that there are not benefits , functional and behavioural changes do indeed happen , just not physical.

his paper goes against previous studies that reported that 24-30 hours of meditation over a two month period led to an increase in grey matter , including the hippocampus and posterior cingulate cortex , important for emotional regulation , learning and memory.

The paper from Wisconsin , says the previous studies were small and did not remove effects from other interventions .The Wisconsin study was seven years of data with at least 70 individuals in each experimental and control group. One group was given MBSR daily ( Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction ) as compared to two other groups who were not given MBSR . The individuals were given structural MRI scans ( good for checking size , shape and integrity of grey and white matter) at the beginning and the end of the eight weeks. Structural changes were expected , but were not seen .

The good news ! Researchers in the above paper did see significantly smaller amygdalas for those who spent more than 22 minutes a day , this area as we know is associated with stress and fear. The researchers were hoping to prove that great matter did in fact change positively , they did however finish off the paper with a quote . ” We’re big fans of meditation , but we’re big fans of truth too.”.

New research into reversing childhood trauma.

This paper released in December 2023 from the Weizmann Institute confirms what we have already looked at in previous posts …that exposure to ACEs alters the brain . However this paper looks at the latest ideas to reverse the trauma effects.

I should add that this research was undertaken using mice in Professor Alan Chens lab and published in the peer -reviewed Science advances Journal. The lead authors were Dr. Aron Kos and Dr Juan Pablo Lopez . Unfortunately for the mice , young mice were subjected to trauma at a young age . The mice were then constantly monitored and compared to mice that had not been subject to the early trauma. These traumatised mice expressed high degrees of introversion and social anxiety also expressing an avoidant personality, they were often bullied by other mice. After death the brains of the mice were removed , the brains were changed , gene expression ( we looked at this in a previous post ) changed two important areas . These are the glutamatergic excitatory system ( it excites or stimulates a nerve cell) and also the GABA inhibitory system ( it reduces nerve excitability , it inhibits nerve transmutation ) .

The researchers gave mice diazepam ( you might know this as Valium ). this restricts the GABA inhibitory system and was given shortly after the trauma . The mice seemed to not suffer from the effects of trauma later in life. This is not to say we should be medicating children , however if this research is correct and can be duplicated , treating individuals who have experienced trauma shortly afterwards with Valium may mean they grow up to be trauma free . Imagine if we could have an effective treatment for new sufferers as long as they are identified shortly after the trauma , for example natural disasters , that would be a positive step forward.

Well this has just been a short summary of what’s happening in the world of trauma research , I will add to this post as I find more interesting research that is current .

Thanks you for spending time with me , if you like my posts , spread the word , we are stronger together …..