The long-term consequences of traumatic childhood experiences on health

Journal title INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY TRAUMA STUDIES
Author/s Alessandra Gallo
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/1 Language Italian
Pages 6 P. 107-112 File size 162 KB
DOI 10.3280/IJM2016-001011
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The importance of life events to health has always been recognized in medicine and the discovery of a possible influence of psychological problems on the immune system has shown the involvement of the latter in most diseases: from infectious diseases to autoimmune diseases, and tumor. Recent literature states such as childhood relationships usually characterized by severe maltreatment, abuse or emotional neglect influence on a stable development of the child making it vulnerable to a variety of disorders in adulthood. In this regard, many studies have investigated and confirmed the long-term effects of traumatic childhood experiences on the possible development of psychosomatic symptoms, cardiovascular disease, obesity and cancer. In particular, it as been observed a correlation between the number of traumatic events and the risk of developing diseases. The results, suggest that given the strong and cumulative impact of these experiences on the health of adults is desirable to have a greater focus on primary prevention strategies, secondary and tertiary. These strategies include the prevention of the occurrence of adverse childhood experiences during childhood and adolescence, effective work on risk situations and finally the improvement of the disease burden.

Keywords: Neglect, psychosomatic illness, prevention.

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Alessandra Gallo, Le conseguenze a lungo termine delle esperienze traumatiche infantili sulla salute in "INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY TRAUMA STUDIES" 1/2016, pp 107-112, DOI: 10.3280/IJM2016-001011