Childhood Stress and Autoimmune Disease

Cumulative Childhood Stress and Autoimmune Diseases in Adults
Shanta R. Dube , PhD, MPH, DeLisa Fairweather , PhD, William S. Pearson , PhD, MHA, Vincent J. Felitti , MD, Robert F. Anda , MD, MS, Janet B. Croft , PhD

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether childhood traumatic stress increased the risk of developing autoimmune diseases as an adult. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 15,357 adult health maintenance organization members enrolled in the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study from 1995 to 1997 in San Diego, California, and eligible for follow-up through 2005. ACEs included childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; witnessing domestic violence; growing up with household substance abuse, mental illness, parental divorce, and/or an incarcerated household member. The total number of ACEs (ACE Score range = 0–8) was used as a measure of cumulative childhood stress. The outcome was hospitalizations for any of 21 selected autoimmune diseases and 4 immunopathology groupings: T- helper 1 (Th1) (e.g., idiopathic myocarditis); T-helper 2 (Th2) (e.g., myasthenia gravis); Th2 rheumatic (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis); and mixed Th1/Th2 (e.g., autoimmune hemolytic anemia).

Results: Sixty-four percent reported at least one ACE. The event rate (per 10,000 person-years) for a first hospitalization with any autoimmune disease was 31.4 in women and 34.4 in men. First hospitalizations for any autoimmune disease increased with increasing number of ACEs (p < .05). Compared with persons with no ACEs, persons with ?2 ACEs were at a 70% increased risk for hospitalizations with Th1, 80% increased risk for Th2, and 100% increased risk for rheumatic diseases (p < .05).

Conclusions: Childhood traumatic stress increased the likelihood of hospitalization with a diagnosed autoimmune disease decades into adulthood. These findings are consistent with recent biological studies on the impact of early life stress on subsequent inflammatory responses.
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/PSY.0b013e3181907888v1?ct

Raising Your Personal Threshold

This month's issue of Mind Chatter from Centerpointe Research Institute has an excellent article on the concept of raising your personal threshold - in other words, the point at which we go from thinking of the world in positive terms to being stressed and responding in negative terms. This would be the point where we fall back unconsciously to responding with childhood coping mechanisms, which could be outward like anger, or inward like depression.

Whether or not you are interested in the brain-wave technology they offer, the article is valuable in itself.

Be Well, Janis

Over the Top: How Raising Your Personal Threshold Can Change Your Life, by Bill Harris
http://www.centerpointe.com/newsletter/mindchatter_07_05.pdf

Readers who prefer to read Mind Chatter in its original plain-text format compatible with blackberry mobile devices can do so by clicking here: http://www.centerpointe.com/newsletter/mindchatter_07_05.txt