This latest research contributes to an already well-established body of evidence, per the U.S. Children’s Bureau, demonstrating that childhood maltreatment can lead to a multitude of long-term physical and behavioral consequences. “Sadly, our findings suggest that the traumatic experience of childhood physical abuse can influence both physical and mental health many decades later,” said the lead study author, Anna Buhrmann, a research assistant at the Institute of Life Course & Aging at the University of Toronto in a statement. “It also underlines the importance of assessing for adverse childhood experiences among patients of all ages, including older adults.” Scientists at the University of Toronto evaluated 409 older adults (age 60 and up) who reported a history of childhood physical abuse, and 4,659 of their peers who indicated that they had not been physically abused during their youth. Compared with those without early trauma, older adults who were abused as children were not only twice as likely to develop depression and anxiety, but their likelihood of being diagnosed with cancer, migraine, or debilitating chronic pain was over 50 percent greater. Their odds of arthritis later in life were 33 percent higher. Buhrmann and her colleagues noted that the links between childhood abuse and poor physical and mental health persisted even after they accounted for income, education, smoking, binge drinking, and other causes of poor health. A coauthor of the study, Esme Fuller-Thomson, PhD, who supervised Buhrmann’s thesis research, stressed that it is never too late for health professionals to refer people for counseling. “A promising intervention, cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT], has been tested and found effective at reducing post-traumatic stress disorder and depressive and anxiety symptoms among survivors of childhood abuse,” said Dr. Fuller-Thompson in the statement. As to why childhood abuse leads to these issues, researchers say that past scientific investigation supports the hypothesis that the effects of abuse “get under the skin” to produce physiological changes, including dysfunction in the systems that regulate the body’s response to stress. Investigators highlighted that adult survivors of childhood abuse exhibit abnormal cortisol levels in response to stressors, and chronically high cortisol levels can lead to persistent health problems, according to the Mayo Clinic. “In light of this, one potential course of study would be to investigate whether abnormal cortisol levels help explain the higher odds of different physical and mental health outcomes among survivors of childhood physical abuse compared with the rest of the population,” wrote the authors. Those seeking more information on how to deal with the repercussions of traumatic events may want to check the advice and resources offered by the National Institute of Mental Health.
