celebrity writers

Childhood Trauma and Adult Illness

ACE Study Establishes Connection Between Childhood Events & Disease

Jan 17, 2008

Building Bridges between Childhood & Adult Health, Adverse Childhood Experiences Study website

Adults who experienced physical, sexual or emotional abuse, loss of a parent, or depression in the childhood home are at higher risk of disease, illness, mental disorders

In the 1990's, the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study surveyed over 17,000 people in San Diego about their health and history. The survey was the beginning of a decade-long collaboration between the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente, led by M.D.s Robert Anda and Vincent Felitti, with the goal of "bridging the gap between childhood trauma and negative consequences later in life," underscoring the importance of preventive medicine and life-long self-care.

According to its website, "the ACE Study is perhaps the largest scientific research study of its kind, analyzing the relationship between… childhood trauma and health and behavioral outcomes later in life." The results of the study are dramatic, but not entirely surprising.

What is an Adverse Childhood Experience? How is ACE Score Calculated?

An "ACE" or "Adverse Childhood Experience" is a traumatic event (or prolonged abuse) that happened before the age of 18.

Unless the trauma is healed (using conventional therapy, energy psychology, or another approach), ACEs remain undigested life experiences and contribute to emotional pain, illness, and self-destructive behavior.

The ACE Study considers ten categories of negative experience:

Physical abuse
Emotional abuse
Sexual abuse
An alcohol or drug abuser in the household
An incarcerated household member
Someone who is chronically depressed, mentally ill, institutionalized, or suicidal
Domestic violence, usually toward the mother
One or no biological parents in the home
Emotional neglect
Physical neglect

ACE Score is a number between 0 and 10: one point for each category of trauma a person experienced before the age of 18.

Results of the ACE Study: Emotional and Physical Health

Despite the truism that "time heals all," time alone does not heal childhood trauma. "It's not just water under the bridge," says the Study's website. "ACEs are surprisingly common among people of all social strata, and have far-reaching consequences. For many people, it's not possible to 'just get over it'."

The Study found that ACEs are common, even in educated, middle-class populations, and that they often occur in groups (someone with one ACE is 87% likely to have two or more). Negative childhood events contribute to social, emotional, and cognitive difficulties, which may lead to high-risk behaviors like smoking and drug use. These habits, in turn, contribute to mental and physical disease, disability, and death.

The Study shows that:

Early trauma affects the areas of the brain that handle mood, stress response, bonding, memory, and how the body stores fat
Higher ACE score is liked to a predisposition for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder
An ACE score of 7 or above "increased the likelihood of childhood/adolescent suicide attempts 51-fold and adult suicide attempts 30-fold"
Disease is often a result of long-term depression in those with high ACE scores

A higher ACE score is consistent with higher rates of:

Smoking
Alcoholism
Marriage to an alcoholic
Antidepressant prescriptions
Promiscuity
STDs
Financial troubles and job-related problems

What Conclusions Can We Draw From the Findings of the ACE Study?

It seems clear that, despite the focus of mainstream medicine on the results of disease, the real issues lie in the roots of disease – the psychological patterns we develop as children, growing up with sometimes difficult childhood experiences.

If our aim is to create real health, we can empower ourselves to discover the roots of poor health and begin to heal from the bottom up – beginning with happiness and the impact of childhood experiences on the mind and development.

References:

Gruder, David, Ph.D., The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships, and Our World, Elite Books, 2008.

The Adverse Childhood Experience Study, accessed January 17, 2008.

The copyright of the article Childhood Trauma and Adult Illness in Natural Medicine is owned by Victoria Anisman-Reiner. Permission to republish Childhood Trauma and Adult Illness in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.