Emotional Neglect in Children Linked to Increased Stroke Risk Later in Life

“New research suggests that people who were emotionally neglected as children may have a higher risk of stroke in adulthood. The study is published in the September 19, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Emotional neglect is defined as failing to provide for a child’s needs emotionally. “Studies have shown that children who were neglected emotionally in childhood are at an increased risk of a slew of psychiatric disorders, however, our study is one of few that look at an association between emotional neglect and stroke,” said study author Robert S. Wilson, PhD, with Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

For the study, 1,040 participants who were 55 years of age or older took a survey measuring physical and emotional abuse before the age of 18. Questions focused on whether the participant felt loved by their caregiver, were made to feel afraid or intimidated and whether they were punished with a belt or other object. Questions about divorce and financial need were also included.

Over a period of three and a half years, 257 people in the study died, of which 192 had a brain autopsy to look for signs of stroke. Forty of the participants had evidence of a stroke based on their medical history or an examination. A total of 89 people had signs of a stroke based on the autopsy results.

The study found that the risk of stroke was nearly three times higher in those who reported a moderately high level of childhood emotional neglect than those who reported a moderately low level. The results stayed the same after considering factors such as diabetes, physical activity, smoking, anxiety and heart problems.

“The results add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that traumatic childhood experiences and physical illness in adulthood may be linked,” said Kevin Barrett, MD, MSc, with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, who wrote an editorial on the research.

Wilson noted that a limitation of the study is that neglect was reported from memory many years after occurrence, so participants may not have remembered events accurately.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Illinois Department of Public Health. ”
Emotional Neglect in Children Linked to Increased Stroke Risk Later in Life

[American Academy of Neurology Press Release 9/19/12]

“Although it is not clear why childhood emotional neglect is associated with adult cerebral infarcts, researchers suggested that such neglect could lead to poor self-care. But in every adjusted model, the risk associated with emotional neglect remained, they pointed out.”

“Wilson and colleagues also noted that poor self-care might manifest as arterial disease, but they found that the risk of cerebral infarction was not associated with postmortem analysis of atherosclerosis or arteriolosclerosis.”

“Emotional neglect was significantly associated with various gross and microscopic subtypes of infarction, including gross subcortical and gross cortical, gross subcortical lacunar and gross subcortical nonlacunar, and microscopic cortical. It was not associated with microscopic subcortical.”

“Barrett and Meschia noted some evidence linking shortened telomeres on chromosomes with childhood trauma. Truncated telomeres are believed to age more quickly than telomeres of appropriate length.

“It is interesting to speculate … that for those who have survived childhood trauma, it might be possible to mitigate the adverse biological effects of that trauma by preserving telomere length,” they said.

They added that some preliminary evidence indicates that physical activity and statins could positively effect telomere length.

Wilson and colleagues noted that their study had several limitations including the retrospective nature of childhood adversity, the potential underestimation of microscopic infarcts as they were examined in only one hemisphere, and the incomplete data on cause of death.”

Unloved Kids May Be at Risk for Stroke Later

[Med Page Today 9/20/12 by Chris Kaiser]

Find the abstract and link to pay for article ($30) here. Risk of stroke 2.8 times higher in those that recall emotional neglect.

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