Adverse childhood impacts adult mental health: Study

BENGALURU: The disturbing experiences that occur during early life, known as

Adverse Childhood Experiences

(ACEs) — abuse and/or neglect which may be physical, emotional or sexual as well as other forms of trauma such as war, terrorism or violence — have far-reaching consequences impacting adulthood, findings of the latest study by three Bengaluru institutes that observed 509 families for more than three years, show.

The study, part of the Accelerator Programme for the Discovery in Brain Disorders using

Stem cells

(ADBS), is backed by the

Centre

through the department of biotechnology (DBT), and also by

Pratiksha Trust

.

Clinical research in mental health over many years has affirmed that psychiatric illnesses are linked with both genetic (hereditary) and environmental factors; ACEs being an environmental factor plays a significant role in altering adulthood.

Launched in 2016, ADBS is a new scientific venture to understand mental illness, and is joint stewardship of three institutions from Bengaluru: The National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (inStem) and the National Institute for Mental Health and Neurosciences (

NIMHANS

).

“The research work led by Dr Biju Viswanath and Dr Jayant Mahadevan from NIMHANS has revealed some remarkable findings which show a direct correlation between ACEs and

mental disorders

. Their team studied individuals from families where at least two individuals suffer from major psychiatric illnesses like

schizophrenia

, bipolar disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), substance use disorder (SUD) or Alzheimer’s dementia,” NCBS said in a statement.

A detailed study of structure and function of the brain using neuropsychological tests, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electrophysiology, eye movement tracking, and infrared spectroscopy, as well as blood tests for genetic and molecular markers, were carried out.

Many of these assessments were repeated at two-year intervals, to understand disease progression and transitions to symptomatic state. In this particular analysis, the pattern of ACEs that result in mental illness, especially the age at which individuals develop these problems was examined in individuals enrolled from the first phase of the ADBS clinical cohort.

The clinical research analysis is based on 509 individuals from 215 families with the study spanning a period of three years. Out of the total sample, 268 were diagnosed to have an illness, while 241 were unaffected, NCBS added.

“Interestingly, it was observed that ACEs were associated with an earlier onset of major psychiatric conditions in men. In addition, there was a specific association with obsessive compulsive disorder and substance use disorder too. This association was not evident for conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,” Viswanath said.

The findings of this research re-emphasise the critical role that childhood adversity plays in the development of psychiatric illness over time. Such a relationship assumes even more significance for individuals from families with a history of mental illness, where there is already a hereditary risk.