Cumulative Childhood Stress and Autoimmune Diseases in Adults

Abstract

Objective To examine whether childhood traumatic stress increased the risk of developing autoimmune diseases as an adult. Methods Retrospective cohort study of 15,357 adult health maintenance organization members enrolled in the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study from 1995 to 1997 in San Diego, California, and eligible for follow-up through 2005. ACEs included childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; witnessing domestic violence; growing up with household substance abuse, mental illness, parental divorce, and/or an incarcerated household member. The total number of ACEs (ACE Score range = 0–8) was used as a measure of cumulative childhood stress. The outcome was hospitalizations for any of 21 selected autoimmune diseases and 4 immunopathology groupings: T- helper 1 (Th1) (e.g., idiopathic myocarditis); T-helper 2 (Th2) (e.g., myasthenia gravis); Th2 rheumatic (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis); and mixed Th1/Th2 (e.g., autoimmune hemolytic anemia). Results Sixty-four percent reported at least one ACE. The event rate (per 10,000 person-years) for a first hospitalization with any autoimmune disease was 31.4 in women and 34.4 in men. First hospitalizations for any autoimmune disease increased with increasing number of ACEs (p < .05). Compared with persons with no ACEs, persons with ≥2 ACEs were at a 70% increased risk for hospitalizations with Th1, 80% increased risk for Th2, and 100% increased risk for rheumatic diseases (p < .05). Conclusions Childhood traumatic stress increased the likelihood of hospitalization with a diagnosed autoimmune disease decades into adulthood. These findings are consistent with recent biological studies on the impact of early life stress on subsequent inflammatory responses.

Longitudinal associations of experiences of adversity and socioeconomic disadvantage during childhood with labour force participation and exit in later adulthood

“…Specifically, poorer mental and physical health, reduced educational attainment, higher levels of risky health-related behaviours (e.g. smoking, drug use, physical inactivity), and reduced employment opportunities in early adulthood have previously been linked to childhood experiences of adversity (Anda et al, 2006;Clark et al, 2010;Dube et al, 2009;Dube et al, 2003) and socioeconomic disadvantage (Lynch et al, 1997;Stansfeld et al, 2008). However, even after accounting for adulthood factors, we expect to see associations between childhood experiences and later life employment via biological, neurological, or psychological mechanisms.…”

Racial bias is associated with ingroup death rate for Blacks and Whites: Insights from Project Implicit

“…Since the relationship between environmental stress and disease is cumulative and emerges over time (Dube et al, 2009;McEwen and Stellar, 1993), one question is whether it is plausible that racial bias measured contemporaneously with death rates would predict those death rates. Critically, however, previous research indicates that community-level racial bias is highly stable over time (Leitner et al, 2016;Schmidt and Nosek, 2010), suggesting that community-level bias estimates aggregated across 2003e2013 likely captured community-level bias that predated 2003.…”

Factors Associated With Anxiety and Depression Spectrum Disorders in Behchet’s Disease

“…В нашем исследовании установлена достоверная ассоциация предшествующих острых и хро-нических стрессовых факторов, а также психотравмиру-ющих событий в детском и подростковом возрасте с раз-витием РТДС. В доступной литературе мы не встретили работ, изучающих частоту и характер РДТ у больных ББ, хотя в серии работ продемонстрирована связь РДТ с раз-витием РТДС и аутоиммунных заболеваний в общей по-пуляции [40].…”