Early trauma and schizophrenia onset: preliminary results of an outpatient cohort in Brazil

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of early trauma in individuals with onset of schizophrenia (SZ) at early (≤ 18 years) and adult (> 18 years) ages (EOP and AOP, respectively) and explore relationships between the onset of disease and clinical variables including traumatic events and psychotic and mood symptoms. Methods: Subjects with SZ (n = 71) and EOP and AOP were compared for history of psychological trauma, sexual abuse, and physical punishment using the Early Trauma Inventory Self Report -Short Form (ETISR-SF). They were also compared for history of comorbidities and affective disorders using the Diagnostic Interview for Psychosis and Affective Disorders, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, and the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia. Coefficients were calculated for correlations between scale results and disease duration. Results: Early trauma was significantly associated with an early onset psychotic episode (r = -0.315, p < 0.01). General trauma and depressive symptoms in adulthood were also associated (r = 0.442, p < 0.01), as were social anxiety symptoms and early trauma (r = 0.319, p < 0.01). Total ETISR-SF scores and the physical abuse item were significantly higher in EOP than in AOP. In the hierarchical regression, PANSS scores were best predicted by a model including the duration of disease and age of first psychotic episode (R = 0.303). Conclusions: Our results support the hypothesis that early trauma, including physical abuse, may play a relevant role in schizophrenia symptoms, such as an earlier psychotic occurrence, as well as features of other psychiatric disorders, such as greater severity of social anxiety and depression.

COVID-19, efectos prenatales y el bienestar de las próximas generaciones

“…dificultan el cómo se expresan los genes sin que se halla visto modificada la secuencia del ADN que los compone, es decir la influencia ambiental sobre la expresión génica (Cavalli y Heard, 2019). Según la hipótesis epigenética, estar expuesto a situaciones traumáticas en etapas tempranas del desarrollo genera una serie de cambios neurológicos, metabólicos, genéticos, nutricionales y morfológicos que terminan traduciéndose en trastornos de la afectividad y malestar emocional (ansiedad, estrés, depresión) y, en el extremo, en cuadros psicóticos, en particular cuando la psicosis es de aparición temprana, pues el debut adulto está menos relacionado con indicadores de trauma temprano (Trovao et al, 2021).…”