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How Does Early Trauma in Childhood Affect Health?

How Does Early Trauma in Childhood Affect Health? (1:16)

Early trauma is often ignored as a source of long-term stress. But there are irreversible changes that can happen in the brain and body, says Elissa Epel, PhD, associate professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.

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There's a very sad body of evidence that has now accumulated about childhood health and adult health, and that is that early trauma is absolutely toxic and in a dose response way so, that kids who experience multiple adverse environment or early traumatic events have a different health profile as adults they're more likely to have early onset of diseases aging.

And they're also more likely to have psychiatric conditions. Post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, early trauma, example we ignore and we think that people who are allowed out and who have the rest of their lives to recover, but actually, there are probably some irreversible changes that happen in the brain when your children and with that easily imprintable.

So clearly, physical and sexual abuse are at the worst end of this spectrum. [MUSIC].