Psychotic symptoms in young adults exposed to childhood trauma—A 20year follow-up study

Abstract

Childhood adversity has been shown to increase the risk of psychotic symptoms in adult life.However, there are no previous studies looking at the association between experiencing a natural disaster during childhood and the development of psychotic symptoms in young adulthood.Eight hundred and six bushfire-exposed children and 725 control children were evaluated following the 1983 South Australian bushfires. Five hundred and twenty nine (65.6%) of the bushfire group and 464 (64%) controls participated in a follow up study 20 years later.Childhood data on emotional and behavioural disorders and dysfunctional parenting was available. The adult assessment included the Australian National Health and Well-Being psychosis screen and detailed information about trauma, childhood adversity and alcohol and cannabis abuse.5.6% of subjects responded positively to the psychosis screen and 2.6% responded positively to a further probe question. Psychotic symptoms were more common in subjects exposed to a greater number of traumas, and were associated with higher rates of childhood adversity, emotional and behavioural disturbance, dysfunctional parenting, and alcohol and cannabis abuse. Subjects exposed to bushfires as children did not have a greater risk of psychosis. Our results indicate that exposure to multiple traumas, rather than a single major trauma, increases the risk of later psychosis.

Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Psychotic-Like Symptoms and Stress Reactivity in Daily Life in Nonclinical Young Adults

“…We found that losses and general traumatic events were not associated with any of the symptom domains. This resonates with studies in which experiencing the death of a close person [17], being exposed to a natural disaster [56], and having a serious accident [16] showed either weak or no association with psychosis phenotypes. Collectively, the findings indicate that maltreatment (either by commission or omission) and victimization perpetrated by same-age peers are directly linked to the real-life expression of symptoms.…”

Schizophrenia patients with a history of childhood trauma have a pro-inflammatory phenotype

“…Taken together, these results suggest that disrupted care in childhood is associated with HPA axis dysfunction and hyper-reactivity of the dopamine system. Pathological effects of stress on the hippocampus may be related to an increase in cortisol and a decrease in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) (Bremner, 2005 ;Galletly et al 2011). Such hippocampal abnormalities, HPA axis disruptions and low levels of BNDF have also been described in schizophrenia, which might suggest that trauma increases the risk of psychosis in vulnerable individuals by altering brain structure and function.…”

Psychotic experiences in the population: Association with functioning and mental distress

“…Furthermore, individuals with psychotic experiences have been shown to have significantly more exposure to childhood trauma (Arseneault et al, 2011;Fisher et al, 2012;Freeman and Fowler, 2009;Galletly et al, 2011;Janssen et al, 2004;Kelleher et al, 2013c;Saha et al, 2011b;Scott et al, 2007;Wigman et al, 2012b), something that might also contribute to long term dysfunction.…”