New Study Links Child Abuse, DNA Damage

Beyond the psychological and emotional stress of childhood abuse and neglect, a Brown University study shows a link with damage to victims’ DNA in later life.

The study, published in October in the journal Biological Psychiatry, examined the DNA of 31 adults who had reported experiencing maltreatment as children, but who had not been diagnosed with any major psychiatric disorders. The researchers found that their subjects had shortened telomeres on their DNA strands, shorter than those found in otherwise similar adults who did not experience childhood mistreatment. Telomeres are the “end-caps” of DNA strands, and their shortening is an indication of advanced cell aging. The study is yet further evidence that child abuse and neglect can have far-reaching effects on an individual, all the way down to the cellular level. “When we looked at childhood maltreatment over all, including all types of abuse or neglect, we found it reverberating to the cellular effect and this very basic cellular mechanism,” said Dr. Audrey Tyrka, of Butler Hospital and Brown University, one of the authors of the study, in an interview with the Providence Journal. Earlier research has shown that such conditions as heart disease, cancer, and excessive stress can cause telomere shortening, which has serious implications to an individual’s health. “Telomere length is critical to protecting the cell,” Dr. Tyrka said. “When telomeres shorten too much, the cell stops replicating. The cell may die or there may be genetic abnormalities that result within the cell. A Canadian study published in February in the journal Nature Neuroscience found that victims of child abuse had different epigenetic markings in that part of the brain that influences an individual’s stress-response. Researchers at McGill University and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal studied the brains of suicide victims who were known to have suffered child abuse. “We know from clinical experience that a difficult childhood can have an impact on a person’s life,” said Prof. Moshe Szyf, one of the researchers, in an article in Medical News Today. ”Now we are starting to understand the biological implications of such psychological abuse.”