The wounds of childhood: Early trauma subtypes, salience and hyperarousal in a sample of adult psychiatric patients

Abstract

Background: The relationship between early trauma, hyperarousal and aberrant salience has been investigated exclusively in specific clinical samples, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychotic patients, and the results suggest that both dimensions are trauma-induced events, which may lead to the later onset, or increase the vulnerability to psychiatric disorders. The aim of the present research was to evaluate the possible relationships among early childhood trauma subtypes and the dimensions of hyperarousal and aberrant salience in an adult sample of psychiatric patients. Materials and Methods: One-hundred psychiatric adult outpatients were assessed by Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form (ETISR-SF), Aberrant Salience Inventory (ASI) and Hyperarousal Scale (H-Scale). A linear regression analysis was performed in order to investigate which early traumatic events were a predictor of the aberrant salience and the hyperarousal. Results: Regression analysis indicated that only ETISR-SF ‘Emotional abuse’ was the unique predictor of ASI ‘Total score’ ( p < .0001) and H-Scale ‘Total score’ ( p = .031), whereas other ETISR-SF variables did not give a significant additional contribution to the prediction of aberrant salience and the hyperarousal dimension. Conclusions: These findings support the role of emotional abuse as predictor of hyperarousal, a basic dimension associated with general vulnerability to mental illness. The awareness of the psychiatric consequences of early childhood trauma leads us to consider the need for better identification of children at risk, to develop effective interventions for the protection of minors from violent and/or inappropriate behaviors and to promote the development of protective resilience factors against re-victimization.

Resisting aggression in social contexts: The influence of life-course persistent antisocial behavior on behavioral and neural responses to social feedback

“…Our finding that increased anterior Insula activity during social feedback processing seems specific to individuals with a history of antisocial behavior also raises the question whether this neural sensitivity is already apparent early in development, whether it arises as a consequence of repeated antisocial behavior, repeated negative social interactions, or a combination. As such, future research should investigate when and how environmental factors and social interactions shape neural sensitivity to social feedback in populations who display early-onset antisocial behavior during different developmental stages ( Ellis et al, 2011 , Foulkes and Blakemore, 2018 , Muscatello et al, 2020 , Schriber and Guyer, 2016 ).…”

From childhood trauma to hyperarousal in adults: The mediating effect of maladaptive shame coping and insomnia

“…Secondly, we discuss the bivariate correlation structure reported in Figure 1 . Here we analyzed the premise that more ACEs lead to increased insomnia ( Bader et al, 2007 ; Wang et al, 2016 ; Muscatello et al, 2020 ; Reffi et al, 2022 ). This was confirmed: having experienced more ACEs was predictive of insomnia severity in adults.…”

Sweet spot in music—Is predictability preferred among persons with psychotic-like experiences or autistic traits?

“…It is also possible that people vary in their emotional reaction when perceiving identical levels of music predictability. Indeed, this was the rationale for controlling for adverse childhood experiences (ACE-IQ) in the current study, as early trauma has been linked to heightened stress responses [ 89 ]. Such increase in responsiveness could boost any aversive reactions to unpredictable music, similar to the effect of overestimating unpredictability.…”