Psychological and Bioneurological Consequences of Child Abuse
Article summary
2021-2022
Roos-Marijn Rohaan
Roos-Marijn Rohaan
,1 What mediates the link between childhood maltreatment and depression?
The role of emotion dysregulation, attachment, and attribution style
(Schierholz et al., 2016)
Introduction
Childhood maltreatment (CM) is often linked major depression disorder (MDD).
Specifically, depression following CM is supposed to be characterised by specific
neuroendocrine and neuroanatomical changes that reflect sensitization of central
stress response systems (Heim et al., 2008). This increases the vulnerability to
depression. There are three possible causes for this neurobiological alteration:
(1) Emotion regulation difficulties
Emotion regulation difficulties have been found to mediate between depression
and CM (Hopfinger et al., 2016)
CM leads to emotion regulation difficulties, including problems understanding and
labelling affective states, low emotional acceptance, and preferential usage of
maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (Cicchetti & Toth, 2005; Cook et al.,
2005)
Emotion regulation difficulties have been shown to be associated with depression
(Joormann & Siemer, 2014)
(2) Attachment
It is suggested that CM contributes to depression vulnerability through
disturbances in early attachment relationships (Goodman & Brand, 2009)
CM is associated with insecure attachment in infants (Cicchetti & Toth, 2005; Cook
et al., 2005)
o Early attachment styles are suggested to determine behaviour, thoughts, and
feelings in close interpersonal relationships in adulthood
o Influential model (Brennan et al., 1998): insecure attachment styles in adulthood
vary in two dimensions; anxiety and avoidance
(3) Attribution style
Experiences of hopelessness can lead to depressogenic inferential styles that are
characterised by a tendency to attribute negative life events to internal, stable,
and global causes (Abramson et al., 1989)
Hopelessness and an external locus of control are associated with a more chronic
course of depression (Wiersma et al., 2011)
Methods
Web-based survey
N = 340
Results
Severity of maltreatment correlates significantly with depression severity and the
number of depressive episodes
PTSD symptom severity turned out to be a mediator between MDD and CM too
Roos-Marijn Rohaan
, 1 Maltreatment in childhood substantially increases the risk of adult
depression and anxiety
in prospective cohort studies: systematic review, meta-analysis, and
proportional attributable fractions
(Li et al., 2016)
Introduction
Childhood maltreatment (CM) contributes to development of depression and anxiety
disorders through many neurological mechanisms:
Stress systems (Cicchetti & Tots, 2005)
Structural brain differences (Herringa et al., 2013)
o Hippocampus, amygdala, corpus callosum, and other white-matter tracts
Functional brain differences
o Hyperactivity of amygdala in response to negative facial affect
Genetics and epigenetics of resilience and vulnerability
Many studies that found significant direct relationships between CM and depression
and anxiety used cross-sectional studies or studies that did not have an externally
documented history of child abuse. In these studies, abuse exposure has generally
been measured via recall methods, which is prone to bias and false memory (Robins
et al., 1985; etc.).
People who have been abused in early childhood sometimes don’t report this in
adulthood when being interviewed;
People with good functioning are apt to forget early parental negativity;
People with poor functioning tend to exaggerate negativity that was not reported
contemporaneously during childhood (Robins et al., 2985; etc.).
This study aims to systematically review the evidence of the association between CM
and depression and anxiety using only longitudinal cohort studies and studies with
externally documented measures of CM
Results
CM is a risk factor for depression and anxiety disorders.
All types of CM are associated with an elevated risk of developing psychological
disorders, including depression and anxiety disorders (Maniglio, 2009; etc.)
Roos-Marijn Rohaan
