Childhood Adversity Increases Risk for Depression and Chronic Inflammation

Childhood Adversity Increases Risk for Depression and Chronic Inflammation   

ScienceDaily (July 3, 2012) ….there is growing evidence that a similar process happens when a person experiences psychological trauma. Unfortunately, this type of inflammation can be destructive.

Previous studies have linked depression and inflammation, particularly in individuals who have experienced early childhood adversity, but overall, findings have been inconsistent. Researchers Gregory Miller and Steve Cole designed a longitudinal study in an effort to resolve these discrepancies, and their findings are now published in a study in Biological Psychiatry….

The researchers found that when individuals who suffered from early childhood adversity became depressed, their depression was accompanied by an inflammatory response. In addition, among subjects with previous adversity, high levels of interleukin-6 forecasted risk of depression six months later. In subjects without childhood adversity, there was no such coupling of depression and inflammation.

Dr. Miller commented on their findings: “What’s important about this study is that it identifies a group of people who are prone to have depression and inflammation at the same time. That group of people experienced major stress in childhood, often related to poverty, having a parent with a severe illness, or lasting separation from family. As a result, these individuals may experience depressions that are especially difficult to treat.”

Another important aspect to their findings is that the inflammatory response among the high-adversity individuals was still detectable six months later, even if their depression had abated, meaning that the inflammation is chronic rather than acute. “Because chronic inflammation is involved in other health problems, like diabetes and heart disease, it also means they have greater-than-average risk for these problems. They, along with their doctors, should keep an eye out for those problems,” added Dr. Miller.

“This study provides important additional support for the notion that inflammation is an important and often under-appreciated factor that compromises resilience after major life stresses. It provides evidence that these inflammatory states persist for long periods of time and have important functional correlates,” said Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry….http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120703133721.htm

Gregory E. Miller, Steve W. Cole. Clustering of Depression and Inflammation in Adolescents Previously Exposed to Childhood Adversity. Biological Psychiatry, 2012; 72 (1): 34 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.02.034….

Results
Multilevel models indicated that childhood adversity promotes clustering of depression and inflammation. Among subjects exposed to high childhood adversity, the transition to depression was accompanied by increases in both CRP and IL-6. Higher CRP remained evident 6 months later, even after depressive symptoms had abated. These lingering effects were bidirectional, such that among subjects with childhood adversity, high IL-6 forecasted depression 6 months later, even after concurrent inflammation was considered. This coupling of depression and inflammation was not apparent in subjects without childhood adversity.

Conclusions
These findings suggest that childhood adversity promotes the formation of a neuroimmune pipeline in which inflammatory signaling between the brain and periphery is amplified. Once established, this pipeline leads to a coupling of depression and inflammation, which may contribute to later affective difficulties and biomedical complications. http://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223%2812%2900213-2/abstract

Satanists jailed, abuse/heart disease, Jeffs new trial, cult sex abuse, trauma

describes crimes – Russian Satanists jailed for gruesome ritual murders  From: NewsCore July 27, 2010 A GANG of six Russians Satanists have been handed jail sentences of up to 20 years for ritually killing and then dismembering four teenagers in a forest.

The six – all teenagers at the time – reportedly also ate the body parts of their victims in a wooded area outside the city of Yaroslavl, about 320 kilometres northeast of Moscow.
The group was found guilty of “murdering four people with the aim of carrying out an initiation ritual into a sect and of desecrating the bodies of the dead,” the Yaroslavl regional court said in a statement. The group, four of whom were under 18 at the time, killed the four teenagers in June 2008, prosecutors said….The accused were found guilty of murder, while four were also found guilty of desecrating the victims’ bodies. The longest sentence of 20 years went to the man named as the group’s leader, Nikolai Ogolobnyak.
http://www.news.com.au/world/russian-satanists-jailed-for-gruesome-ritual-murders/story-e6frfkyi-1225897258373

Link Between Childhood Physical Abuse and Heart Disease
ScienceDaily (July 23, 2010) — Childhood physical abuse is associated with significantly elevated rates of heart disease in adulthood, according to new findings by University of Toronto researchers, published in this month’s issue of the journal Child Abuse & Neglect. “Individuals who reported they had been physically abused as children had 45 per cent higher odds of heart disease than their peers who had not been abused, despite the fact we had adjusted for most of the known risk factors for heart disease,” says Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, who holds the Sandra Rotman Chair at U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Department of Family and Community Medicine.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100722102043.htm

Utah court reverses polygamist leader convictions
By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer Jennifer Dobner, Jul 27, 2010 SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the convictions of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and ordered a new trial, saying a jury received incorrect instructions before considering his role in the 2001 nuptials of a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. Jeffs, 54, was convicted in 2007 of two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He is serving two consecutive terms of five years to life in the Utah State Prison….Jeffs is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The sect, whose estimated 10,000 members live mostly on the Utah-Arizona state line, practices polygamy in marriages arranged by church leaders. Some marriages have involved underage girls to older men.

Jeffs performed the religious marriage of Elissa Wall and Allen Steed in a Caliente, Nev., motel and later counseled Wall to be obedient and give her “mind, body and soul” to her husband in an effort to make an unhappy marriage work.

During the trial and later in her book, “Stolen Innocence,” Wall said she objected to the marriage and was forced into sexual relations with her husband….In its ruling Tuesday, the court agreed with defense attorneys who argued that jurors should not have been told to decide whether Wall’s marital relations were consensual based on Jeffs’ actions and his role as her religious leader. That essentially equates Jeffs with Steed — the person who allegedly has had nonconsensual sex. Justices said prosecutors were wrong to make that leap.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100727/ap_on_re_us/us_polygamist_leader_appeal

Michael Lyons may have raped dozens more women
Police fear dozens more women around the world have been raped by cult leader Michael Lyons.  26 Jul 2010 Officers said many victims were too scared to come forward after falling into the clutches of his intimidating group. They said Lyons, known in spiritualist circles as Mohan Singh, was a calculating criminal masquerading as a healer.

Lyons was jailed for 10 years yesterday after being convicted of raping one woman and assaulting another. However police say many more women around the world may also have been victims….Detective Sergeant Nicholas Giles, who pursued Lyons, said officers liaised with colleagues at the FBI as the net closed around their suspect.  He said Lyons travelled widely between London, Paris, Miami and New York, spending only a few months in each place.  Internet campaigners claim to have drawn up a list of 20 potential victims in New York alone.  Mr Giles said the complex and unusual case created many difficulties, including persuading the jury how dangerous Lyons was. He said: ”This is all about control, brainwashing, a cult. It is not someone with a mask jumping out of a bush. It is very hard to prove. ”We had to bring family members, people who have lost people to the cult, from America.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7911698/Michael-Lyons-may-have-raped-dozens-more-women.html

Confessions of a Trauma Therapist A Memoir of Healing and Transformation Mary K. Armstrong TO HER SURPRISE, dismay, and eventually relief, Mary Armstrong, a therapist with over thirty years of experience helping people heal from childhood trauma, uncovered her own history of child sexual abuse at the hands of her grandfather and father. As she tells her harrowing but heroic tale, she casts light as never before on the issue of repressed memories and the invisible wounds left by childhood trauma. ISBN  978-1-926645-19-3 http://www.bpsbooks.com
http://www.bpsbooks.com/confessions-of-a-trauma-therapist-mary-k-armstrong/
Author’s website http://www.marykarmstrong.com/