The purpose of the
paper was to conduct a
systematic review of
early life stress and its
association with
psychiatric disorders in adulthood. The occurrence of early stress has lasting negative consequences on the individual, with
psychopathology onset one of the most important consequences. The degree of
early life stress is associated with the severity of
psychiatric disorders and disability in adulthood.
Methodology:
We conducted a search of two databases (
PubMed and SciELO), limited to the
time span 1990-2010, using the following
keywords child abuse, maltreatment, early stress, and
psychiatric disorders. Thirty-one
papers were selected for this
review.
Results:
We found that the subtypes of
early life stress such as emotional and physical neglect and sexual, emotional, and
physical abuse have
associations with several
psychiatric disorders, but the
Borderline Personality Disorder and
Mood Disorders are more associated with the categories listed.
Conclusions:
Exposure to adversities in childhood and
adolescence is predictive of
psychiatric disorders in adulthood. More studies are needed to understand the mechanisms by which
early life stress is a
risk factor for
future psychopathology.(AU)