1. More efforts and social resources are needed for prevention based on how childhood trauma can impact a child’s development
2. There needs to be better analysis on how effective evidence-based interventions are for PTSD, depression and antisocial behaviors
3. Further research needs to be conducted to understand the neurobiological consequences of chronic stress on a child's brain and body

California Baptist University

Trauma that is experienced in childhood has serious consequences for both victims and society, as it concerns psychosocial, medical, and public policy problems. The most common violence in children is chronic interpersonal. Even with how prevalent childhood trauma is, there is a lack of research on the biological effects in children compared to adults who have a history of child trauma.  There is also a lack of research on pediatric mechanisms and how they are the foundation for short and long-term medical and mental health consequences. This article places emphasis on different literature surrounding the neurobiological results of childhood trauma in children and adults. 

The Biological Effects of Childhood Trauma

De Bellis, M. D., & Zisk, A. (2014). The biological effects of childhood trauma. Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America, 23(2), 185–vii. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2014.01.002

References for the Biological Effects of Childhood Trauma

Childhood Trauma is explained as the exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. The experiences a person has can include direct trauma exposure, witnessing trauma, or learning about a trauma that a close relative or friend endured. For children, childhood traumas that end up creating distress, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are motor vehicle accidents, bullying, terrorism, exposure to war, and child maltreatment. This can come in the form of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as neglect. Childhood traumas, specifically interpersonal, intentional, and chronic, are associated with a higher likelihood of PTSD, PTSD depression, anxiety, and antisocial behaviors.

Trauma in Childhood

The biological effects of maltreatment provide useful information that can be put into practice. Self-reporting instruments are used to study the changes in moods, emotions, and behaviors during psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatment. Sleep can also be measured by using bio-markers like actographs, which are noninstrusive digital monitoring devices that can be placed on the wrist and assess a person’s daily activity, sleep schedule and sleep regulation. Further bio-markers that can be used to monitor and adjust treatment, and help avoid biological effects of trauma are monitoring measures of heart rate, body mass index, and post-trauma and follow-up salivary cortisol and amylase concentrations. These measures predict PTSD, and decreasing these levels during treatment may predict remission.

Important Tools for Practice

The biological effects of maltreatment provide helpful information that can be put into practice. The first step would be to ensure a safe environment for the child and adolescent patient. If a child continues to live in an extremely harsh environment, then it is not unlikely that treatments or the lessening of the biological stress systems will happen. Based on the research provided in this article, interventions with precise forms of evidence show how effective they are in treating traumatized children. These interventions have shown that the treatments help heal dysregulations mentioned in the neurobiological stress systems. One example of dysregulation would be sleeping hygiene issues, where patients who have trauma symptoms should receive help with this through behavioral methods or medications. Based on MRI studies, there has been evidence that cognitive-behavioral therapy can reduce dysregulation of the fear response and negative emotions associated with anxiety disorders to predict treatment outcomes. This ultimately ends up being the treatment for professionals as it has the most evidence of helping patients, specifically children. Child psychiatrists will usually work on sleep hygiene first, then focus on a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor on symptoms like anxiety and depression or adrenergic agents that suppress biological stress systems. Medications are taken with precaution as they can have adverse side effects for children who have experienced maltreatment and are prone to mood and anxiety disorders.

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