[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site — abuseresearch.info — that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she posts the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! — Jane Stevens]
Bryant DJ, Oo M, Damian AJ.
The rise of adverse childhood experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Psychol Trauma. 2020 Aug;12(S1):S193-S194. PMID: 32551773
“At some point this pandemic will end, and when it does, the public health response must include consideration for this increase in adversity that so many children will potentially experience and the ways that they were cut off from resiliency building supports…we must marshal resources to assure that a generation of children does not experience more of what a childhood marked by these experiences can bring over the life course—depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, suicide, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, poverty, and early death. We may not be able to stop this abuse from occurring; indeed, it is happening right now. But we have the tools to mitigate the consequences of this abuse if we attend to it as soon as society is able and choose not to turn a blind eye to the things that happened behind closed and quarantined doors during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Levine C.
Vulnerable Children in a Dual Epidemic.
Hastings Cent Rep. 2020 May;50(3):69-71. PMID: 32596909
“Two epidemics—Covid-19 and opioid use disorder (OUD)—are creating short- and long-term mental and physical health risks for vulnerable children and adolescents…Although not officially designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "adverse childhood experiences" ("ACEs")…It is important to recognize and meet the needs of all these children now and not just when the long-term consequences become apparent.”
Kascakova N, Furstova J, Hasto J, et. al.
The Unholy Trinity: Childhood Trauma, Adulthood Anxiety, and Long-Term Pain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jan 8;17(2). pii: E414. PMID: 31936285
From surveys of Czech adults from the general public as well as from a clinic population being seen for stress, reporting anxiety and pain as adults was associated with a higher prevalence of childhood emotional and physical abuse and neglect.
Kaufman J, Torbey S.
Child maltreatment and psychosis. Neurobiol Dis. 2019 Nov;131:104378. PMID: 30685353
“This paper reviews the literature on the association between experiences of child abuse and neglect and the development of psychoses. It then explores the premise that psychotic patients with a history of maltreatment may comprise a clinically and biological distinct subgroup.”
Christie AJ, Matthews KA.
Childhood Poly-victimization Is Associated with Elevated Body Mass Index and Blunted Cortisol Stress Response in College Women.
Ann Behav Med. 2019 May 3;53(6):563-572. PMID: 30169815
Of almost 100 healthy college women, those with childhood polyvictimization (2-5 types of violent childhood exposure vs. 0) had significantly higher body mass index (BMI), and an abnormal response of stress hormones to a laboratory stressor. In addition, the more frequent the violence exposure, the higher the BMI.
Miller-Graff L, Howell KH, Scheid CR, Schaefer L.
"Violence is Everywhere": Childhood Polyvictimization, Perceptions of the Prevalence of Victimization, and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms.
Violence Vict. 2019 Apr 1;34(2):376-393. PMID: 31019018
From an online survey of 369 college students, childhood polyvictimization was significantly related to distorted views of the higher prevalence of victimization in the general public. This distorted view was also related to higher symptoms of hyperarousal in those with PTSD. “Intervention around perceptions of the prevalence of victimization may be useful for addressing symptoms of hyperarousal.”
Lange BCL, Callinan LS, Smith MV.
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Their Relation to Parenting Stress and Parenting Practices. Community Ment Health J. 2019 May;55(4):651-662. PMID: 30194589
81 parenting women enrolled in a stress management class showed a significant dose-response relationship between higher parental ACE score and increased perceived parenting stress.
Lin HS, Naimi AI, Brooks MM, et. al.
Life-course impact of child maltreatment on midlife health-related quality of life in women. Ann Epidemiol. 2020 Mar;43:58-65. PMID: 32127250
For 342 midlife women, the 20% of whom reported 2 or more childhood maltreatment types also reported lower health-related quality of life. Low optimism, sleep problems, and low social support each contributed to the negative impact of childhood maltreatment, and could be targets of interventions.
Carson MY, Thurston RC.
Childhood abuse and vasomotor symptoms among midlife women. Menopause. 2019 Oct;26(10):1093-1099. PMID: 31166306
Of 295 nonsmoking perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, those with a history of childhood physical or sexual abuse had approximately 1.5-2 times increased vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes) during sleep.
Jia Z, Wen X, Chen F, Zhu H, Li C, Lin Y, Xie X, Yuan Z.
Cumulative Exposure to Adverse Childhood Experience: Depressive Symptoms, Suicide Intensions and Suicide Plans among Senior High School Students in Nanchang City of China. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jun 30;17(13). pii: E4718. PMID: 32630073
Of 884 Chinese high school students, during the past 12 months, 22.51% reported depressive symptoms, 14.14% suicidal intentions, and 6.22% had made suicide plans. Increasing ACE scores correlated with increasing risks for all categories.
Hinesley J, Krist A.
A Primary Care Approach to Adverse Childhood Experiences. Am Fam Physician. 2020 Jul 1;102(1):55-57. PMID: 32603065
Using a case scenario, authors discuss identification of ACEs, assessing for health effects, and a treatment regimen that “may include a combination of counseling, medications, referral to specialists and community resources, and longitudinal support and follow-up…For patients who are pregnant or have children, physicians may want to consider the potential risk of adverse childhood experiences being passed to the next generation. Parents are often motivated to pursue their own treatment and change unhealthy behaviors that can cause adverse childhood experiences in an effort to protect their children and to improve the parent-child relationship.”
Other of interest
Scott JT, Ingram AM, Nemer SL, Crowley DM.
Evidence-Based Human Trafficking Policy: Opportunities to Invest in Trauma-Informed Strategies. Am J Community Psychol. 2019 Dec;64(3-4):348-358. PMID: 31593298
This analysis of legislation proposed in Congress regarding human trafficking showed that bills using research language (e.g. impact of trauma, best practices for service delivery, evaluations that guide future policy, etc.) as opposed to simple trauma language were more likely to pass out of Committee and become enacted. (This basic strategy may also apply to proposed legislation in other areas of abuse and trauma.)
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