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Life Course Epidemiology of Trauma and Related Psychopathology in Civilian Populations

  • Disaster Psychiatry: Trauma, PTSD, and Related Disorders (E Foa and A Asnaani, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Traumatic events are ubiquitous exposures that interact with life course events to increase risk of acute psychopathology and alter mental health trajectories. While the majority of persons exposed to trauma experience mild to moderate psychological distress followed by a return to pre-trauma health, many persons exposed to trauma experience substantial distress that lasts for several years. Therefore, in an effort to understand why exposure to trauma can provoke such a range of reactions, we apply a life course approach that considers the complex accumulation and interaction of life experiences that range from social to biological factors, which occur over the life span—from gestation to death and across generations. We present this evidence in three categories: genetics and biology, individual exposures, and community experiences, followed by discussing challenges in existing research and directions for future study.

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Notes

  1. Personal communication with Corina Benjet based on the World Mental Health Survey Initiative, a worldwide survey assessing 68,894 adults in 24 countries.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by research grants from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institute of Health (grant number T32DA031099). The sponsoring agency had no further role in the study design and analysis, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Conflict of Interest

David S. Fink and Sandro Galea declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY, 10032-3727, USA

    David S. Fink

  2. School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Sandro Galea

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  1. David S. Fink
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  2. Sandro Galea
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Correspondence to David S. Fink.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Disaster Psychiatry: Trauma, PTSD, and Related Disorders

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Fink, D.S., Galea, S. Life Course Epidemiology of Trauma and Related Psychopathology in Civilian Populations. Curr Psychiatry Rep 17, 31 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-015-0566-0

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