Can Childhood Trauma Lead to Serious Adult Illnesses?
Childhood traumas have much more serious effects on adult health than we previously thought. How can the negative effects of a troubled childhood be mitigated?
Childhood traumas have far-reaching consequences on adult health. A study conducted in the mid-1990s, which assessed the health and mental state of 17,000 adults, found a significant correlation between severe illnesses such as heart attacks, certain types of cancer, obesity, depression, and experiences of childhood trauma.
The method used by Dr. Vincent J. Felitti was quite simple. He compared adults’ health conditions with the types and number of childhood traumas they had experienced. The results of the study were startling. The more varied and prolonged the traumas someone experienced, the worse their health condition was.
For instance, those who experienced four types of trauma were 2.5 times more likely to have hepatitis, 3 times more likely to have lung cancer, 3.5 times more likely to have heart disease, 4.5 times more likely to be depressed, and 12 times more likely to commit suicide than those who had no such experiences.