There is now ample evidence from the preclinical and clinical fields that early life trauma has both dramatic and long-lasting effects on neurobiological systems and functions that are involved in different forms of psychopathology as well as on health in general. To date, a comprehensive review of the recent research on the effects of early and later life trauma is lacking. This book fills an obvious gap in academic and clinical literature by providing reviews which summarize and synthesize these findings. Topics considered and discussed include the possible biological and neuropsychological effects of trauma at different epochs and their effect on health. This book will be essential reading for psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, mental health professionals, social workers, pediatricians and specialists in child development. (amazon)
The ACE study (2010)
Felitti, V. J., & Anda, R. F. (2010). The relationship of adverse childhood experiences to adult medical disease, psychiatric disorders and sexual behavior: Implications for healthcare. In R. A. Lanius, E. Vermetten, & C. Pain (Eds.), The impact of early life trauma on health and disease: The hidden epidemic (pp. 77–87). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Mucci, Clara. Borderline Bodies: Affect Regulation Therapy for Personality Disorders (p. 307). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle edition.
Between bodily reaction and mental state, the physiologic activation of the organs stimulated by the neuroendocrine response to stress is responsible for the dysfunctional reaction of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis (Figure 2.1), resulting in an increase of cortisol and a depression of the immune system so that infective and chronic diseases or even neoplastic formations are more likely to occur. This enhanced vulnerability is confirmed by the findings of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study (Felitti & Anda, 2010).
The ACE study, which has been conducted since the 1990s by Kaiser Permanente’s Department of Preventive Medicine in San Diego and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta (see Felitti & Anda, 2010; Felitti et al., 1998), constitutes a vast and ongoing epidemiologic study of more than 18,000 subjects correlating personal severe early traumatizations in the patients with mental and physical disorders they had developed (Figure 2.2). (ibid, p. 52)
