Childhood abuse can harm health as an adult

Children who are abused show a higher incidence of health and medical conditions such as heart disease and diabetes as adults, revealed in a study.

Dr Andrea Danese and colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London have published a new study indicating that people who were physically or sexually abused as children are twice as likely to have inflammatory proteins in their blood. The findings could explain why children who are abused show a higher incidence of conditions such as heart disease and diabetes as adults.

The team monitored 1000 people in New Zealand from birth to 32 years of age, noting factors that created stress and measuring for levels of inflammation associated with heart disease in their bloodstream. The article is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


Leave a Comment