childhood trauma childhood trauma childhood trauma is often described as serious adverse childhood experiences (aces). children may go through a range of experiences that classify as psychological trauma; these might include neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse, witnessing abuse of a sibling or parent, or having a mentally ill parent. these events have profound psychological, physiological, and sociological impacts and can have negative, lasting effects on health and well-being such as unsocial behaviors, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd), and sleep disturbances. similarly, children whose mothers have experienced traumatic or stressful events during pregnancy have an increased risk of mental health disorders and other neurodevelopmental disorders. kaiser permanente and the centers for disease control and prevention's 1998 study on adverse childhood experiences determined that traumatic experiences during childhood are a root cause of many social, emotional, and cognitive impairments that lead to increased risk of unhealthy self-destructive behaviors, risk of violence or re-victimization, chronic health conditions, low life potential and premature mortality. as the number of adverse experiences increases, the risk of problems from childhood through adulthood also rises. nearly 30 years of study following the initial study has confirmed this. many states, health providers, and other groups now routinely screen parents and children for aces. health lasting effects of adverse childhood experiences traumatic experiences during childhood causes stress that increases an individual's allostatic load and thus affects the immune system, nervous system, and endocrine system. exposure to chronic stress triples or quadruples the vulnerability to adverse medical outcomes. childhood trauma is often associated with adverse health outcomes including depression, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, lung cancer, and premature mortality. effects of childhood trauma on brain development includes a negative impact on emotional regulation and impairment of development of social skills. research has shown that children raised in traumatic or risky family environments tend to have excessive internalizing (e.g., social withdrawal, anxiety) or externalizing (e.g., aggressive behavior), and suicidal behavior. recent research has found that physical and sexual abuse are associated with mood and anxiety disorders in adulthood, while personality disorders and schizophrenia are linked with emotional abuse as adults. in addition, research has proposed that mental health outcomes from childhood trauma may be better understood through a dimensional framework (internalizing and externalizing) as opposed to specific disorders. psychological impact main article: stress in early childhood childhood trauma can increase the risk of mental disorders including posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd), attachment issues, depression, and substance abuse. sensitive and critical stages of child development can result in altered neurological functioning, adaptive to a malevolent environment but difficult for more benign environments. in a study done by stefania tognin and maria calem comparing healthy comparisons (hc) and individuals at clinically high risk for developing psychosis (chr), 65.6% chr patients and 23.1% hc experienced some level of childhood trauma. the conclusion of the study shows that there is a correlation between the effects of childhood trauma and the being at high risk for psychosis. effects on adults as an adult feelings of anxiety, worry, shame, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, grief, sadness and anger that started with a trauma in childhood can continue. in addition, those who endure trauma as a child are more likely to encounter anxiety, depression, suicide and self harm, ptsd, drug and alcohol misuse and relationship difficulties. the effects of childhood trauma don't end with just emotional repercussions. survivors of childhood trauma are also at higher risk of developing asthma, coronary heart disease, diabetes or having a stroke. they are also more likely to develop a "heightened stress response" which can make it difficult for them to regulate their emotions, lead to sleep difficulties, lower immune function, and increase the risk of a number of physical illnesses throughout adulthood. epigenetics main article: epigeneticschildhood trauma can leave epigenetic marks on a child's genes, which chemically modify gene expression by silencing or activating genes, or dna methylation. this can alter fundamental biological processes and adversely affect health outcomes throughout life. a 2013 study found that people who had experienced childhood trauma had different neuropathology than people with ptsd from trauma experienced after childhood. another recent study in rhesus macaques showed that dna methylation changes related to early-life adversity persisted into adulthood. this research has centered primarily around methylation associated with the nr3c1 gene, however research in to the epigenetic impact of trauma has extended to other genes, including kitlg. survivors of war trauma or childhood maltreatment are at increased risk for trauma-spectrum disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). in addition, traumatic stress has been associated with alterations in the neuroendocrine and the immune system, enhancing the risk for physical diseases. in particular, epigenetic alterations in genes regulating the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis as well as the immune system have been observed in survivors of childhood and adult trauma. traumatic experiences might even affect psychological as well as biological parameters in the next generation, i.e. traumatic stress might have trans generational effects. parental trauma exposure was found to be associated with greater risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) and mood and anxiety disorders in offspring since biological alterations associated with ptsd and/or other stress-related disorders have also been observed in offspring of trauma survivors who do not themselves report trauma exposure or psychiatric disorder. animal models have demonstrated that stress exposure can result in epigenetic alterations in the next generation, and such mechanisms have been hypothesized to underpin vulnerability to symptoms in offspring of trauma survivors. enduring behavioral responses to stress and epigenetic alterations in adult offspring have been demonstrated to be mediated by changes in gametes in utero effects, variations in early postnatal care, and/or other early life experiences that are influenced by parental exposure (yehuda, daskalakis, bierer, bader, klengel, holsboer, and binder, 2015). these changes could result in enduring alterations of the stress response as well as the physical health risk. furthermore, the effects of parental trauma could be transmitted to the next generation by parental distress and the pre- and postnatal environment, as well as by epigenetic marks transmitted via the germline. while epigenetic research has a high potential of advancing our understanding of the consequences of trauma, the findings have to be interpreted with caution, as epigenetics only represent one piece of a complex puzzle of interacting biological and environmental factors.