Just published last week in JAMA Archives:
Association of Reports of Childhood Abuse and All-Cause
Mortality Rates in Women by Edith Chen, PhD; Nicholas A. Turiano, PhD; Daniel K. Mroczek, PhD; Gregory E. Miller, PhD (JAMA Psychiatry. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.1786. Published online August 17, 2016.)
Chen Google drive link
Child Maltreatment as a Root Cause of Mortality Disparities
A Call for Rigorous Science to Mobilize Public Investment
in Prevention and Treatment by Idan Shalev, PhD; Christine M. Heim, PhD; Jennie G. Noll, PhD (JAMA Psychiatry. Editorial. Published online August 17, 2016.)
Shalev Google drive link
The longer one hangs around psychiatry, the more one notices the pattern that "bad things keep happening to people that have bad things happen to them". This report quantifies that impression in women (and interestingly, not in men) by linking an increased all-cause mortality with history of child abuse. I've often said that if there is one preventative intervention that would eliminate the need for our services, it would be to abolish all child abuse, particularly sexual abuse. However, since I lack the supreme omnipotence to institute this change, it is important that we acknowledge it as a predisposing factor in many of our patients and do our best to mitigate its long term effects. The Chen, et al. paper offers some hypotheses regarding the mechanism of this connection, though interestingly, subsequent psychiatric diagnosis is not correlated with the outcome. Is there some hypothesis that seems compelling to you, possibly supported by some other research you've run across? The Shalev, et al. editorial discusses further, and calls us to consider the needed broader focus on social policies and preventative strategies required to address this meaningfully, if we are to effect changes in these areas.
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