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PTSD During Childhood, Childhood Trauma, Childhood Maltreatment and How They Relate to Adult PTSD

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Childhood Trauma in Mental Disorders

Abstract

Among adult’s psychopathologies, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the only one that can be directly caused by childhood trauma. In this chapter, we will review research that has contributed to our current understanding of the relationship of childhood trauma and PTSD during adulthood. Childhood trauma however, can also have more indirect ways of increasing the probability of suffering from PTSD during adulthood; it is linked to a diverse set of biological markers including regional brain activation and structural changes, neurophysiology and epigenetics all of which are linked to the course, nature and severity of PTSD symptomatology during adulthood. Childhood trauma is also linked to impaired cognitive performance, altered emotion regulation and attachment behaviour, as well as to environmental limitations such as reduced socio-economic status, all of which are associated with increased risk for later PTSD. This chapter explores these factors and their interactions, as well as their meaning for the development of future preventive intervention and research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Dominik Andreas Moser

  2. University Service of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Dominik Andreas Moser

  3. Association VIRES, Center for Psychotherapy, Research and Prevention of Violence, Geneva, Switzerland

    Francesca Suardi

  4. Relais Enfants Parents Romands (REPR), Geneva, Switzerland

    Francesca Suardi

  5. University Service of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Daniel Scott Schechter

  6. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Daniel Scott Schechter

  7. Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland

    Daniel Scott Schechter

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  1. Dominik Andreas Moser
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  2. Francesca Suardi
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  3. Daniel Scott Schechter
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Correspondence to Dominik Andreas Moser .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neuropsychiatry, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy

    Gianfranco Spalletta

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Delfina Janiri

  3. Laboratory of Neuropsychiatry, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy

    Federica Piras

  4. Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

    Gabriele Sani

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Moser, D.A., Suardi, F., Schechter, D.S. (2020). PTSD During Childhood, Childhood Trauma, Childhood Maltreatment and How They Relate to Adult PTSD. In: Spalletta, G., Janiri, D., Piras, F., Sani, G. (eds) Childhood Trauma in Mental Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49414-8_11

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