The study, one of the first to use longitudinal data on proven cases of abuse for children under the age of 14, revealed a significant link even after poverty and other disadvantageous factors were controlled for.
“The association is so strong, between abuse and psychosis, and one of the really key points here is that it is emotional abuse and neglect that made people particularly vulnerable.
“When we talk about abuse we often think of sexual abuse, which is horrific, but emotional abuse does as much damage to a much greater number of people. When you think about it, the emotional trauma would have to be pretty severe before a child agency intervened and yet we know it does so much damage.”
A litany of studies around the world have previously indicated a link between childhood poverty and trauma to ongoing changes in the brain of those same people when they became adults, such as an inability to handle stress.
“It used to be assumed that psychosis was biological, but this points to environmental factors being involved and, at that, factors that are extremely modifiable,” he said.
“If we can intervene early with parents and give them skills and support to better handle their emotions around children, this can save a lot of pain in the future,” he said.
More proof, if proof was needed,of how environmental factors can be involved. It should be noted though that most abused children don’t go on to develop psychosis.
Most children of emotional abuse and neglect grow up and get the same treatment, which is, no one really gives a ■■■■ about them, they learn to take care of themselves, psychotic or not.
Unfortunately I can’t with the link from ‘the Australian’. Was able to access the article this morning but now it’s prompting me to subscribe. I am not willing to do that.
@SzAdmin Can you remove that link? Makes note to self not to post links from there in future.
Does a kitchen knife held to the throat and a threat not to tell count as emotional abuse? How about being strangled to blackout and then revived to a glass of water? 9 years old…
"The more than 3700 children who had experienced substantiated childhood maltreatment before the age of 14 were more likely to report hallucinations, delusions and psychosis at the age of 21 compared to children who were not abused.
Children who experienced emotional abuse and neglect appeared to be particularly vulnerable to developing psychotic symptoms including hallucinations.
‘Our research makes it increasingly apparent that childhood maltreatment is a risk factor among those who go on to develop some form of psychosis as young adults,’ said lead researcher Associate Professor James Scott.
However, the vast majority of children who experienced childhood maltreatment did not go on to develop psychosis, Prof Scott stressed.
‘We need further research to understand why some children who are maltreated have no adult mental illness, while others develop severe conditions like schizophrenia and related disorders,’ said Prof Scott."
… …
Another study to be presented at the RANZCP Annual Congress in Adelaide found children who are neglected or abused are also at greater risk of abusing cannabis."
I’m 40 years old I’ve seen more abuse and messed up stuff in the first 18 years of my life then most people in 10 lifetimes. I often look back on it and at times I want revenge. Often I just go to bed wishing not to wake up so it will all be over.
I was physically, emotionally and sexually abused by my own father starting at the age of two years old all the way up to age eighteen when I left home. He even emotionally abused me after I left home. He abused everybody in our family. And even the neighbor kids. He’s dead now from natural causes. And after an equally abusive husband for almost ten years, it’s no wonder I would have nothing more to do with men after my divorce 30 years ago.
And now, after years and years of being dragged through the dirt by women, I don’t want anything more to do with women either. I’m sticking with the big guy upstairs.
I don’t remember my childhood much but there’s a possibility I was sexually abused at one point given some clues from my sisters having been exposed to this one person the same as I was at the time of being a child. He wasn’t a good babysitter, let’s just leave it at that.
For the other portion of my life, I was emotionally abused and neglected.
Maybe this induced the inevitable after all.
I was emotionally, physically and sexually abused throughout my childhood. I was also grossly neglected. I am stunned at the sharp contrast of my childhood with my own children’s (18 and 20) loving and abuse-free childhood. I admire them and live vicariously.
It doesn’t surprise me that abuse is a contributor to psychosis. The young brain is a fragile thing. Very.