Difficulties during childhood are tied to many adverse effects in adulthood. Research has found that victim of such traumas as childhood sexual abuse and neglect are more likely to experience difficult psychological and physical conditions as adults.
Physical conditions include obesity and cardiovascular disease, while psychological conditions include post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.
A recent study examined the impact of adverse childhood events (ACEs) on the risk for adult substance dependence (SD). Douglas, et al. analyzed the association between such factors as increasing childhood trauma, the presence of substance abuse in the childhood household, and lower stability in the childhood home with a prediction of SD.
The researchers also predicted that multiple childhood traumas would cumulatively increase the risk of SD. Because mood and anxiety disorders are commonly found in conjunction with SD, the study also sought to determine whether these types of disorders might assist with intervention for those at risk for SD.
The study recruited 2,510 subjects from four major university hospitals that had pooled data from family-based and case-control genetic studies of SD. The participants were evaluated using the SSADDA, which provides demographic information and assesses substance dependence using the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria.
The results of the study supported the hypothesis. Those participants who had experienced sexual or physical abuse were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with SD. In addition, household substance abuse nearly doubled the risk of SD in adulthood.
Because of the genetic aspect of substance abuse, the connection between substance abuse in the household and SD diagnosis in adulthood may be explained by other factors.
As the researchers hypothesized, the participants with SD were also found to have had a much lower level of household stability, reporting a significantly greater number of relocations, multiple main caregivers, and a lower perceived quality of relationship with the main caregiver during childhood than their control group counterparts.
The researchers also found there to be a cumulative effect of childhood traumas on the risk for SD. For each additional instance of a type of childhood trauma, the odds of developing an adulthood dependence on alcohol, cocaine or opioids were nearly doubled.
The study also established a clear link between the onset of mood and anxiety disorders preceding the onset of SD and that a measure of lifetime mood and anxiety disorders mediated the effects of two ACEs on subsequent SD.
The results of the study are helpful in examining strategies for education and intervention for those already predisposed to SD because of identified childhood trauma and abuse. This study increases the understanding of how ACEs impact children far into adulthood.
