Department of Psychiatry Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen The Netherlands.
Pro Persona Mental Health Care Depression Expertise Center Nijmegen The Netherlands.
Brain Behav. 2017 May 9;7(6):e00693. doi: 10.1002/brb3.693. eCollection 2017 Jun.
Both childhood trauma and negative memory bias are associated with the onset and severity level of several psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety disorders. Studies on these risk factors, however, generally use homogeneous noncomorbid samples. Hence, studies in naturalistic psychiatric samples are lacking. Moreover, we know little about the quantitative relationship between the frequency of traumatic childhood events, strength of memory bias and number of comorbid psychiatric disorders; the latter being an index of severity. The current study examined the association of childhood trauma and negative memory bias with psychopathology in a large naturalistic psychiatric patient sample.
Frequency of traumatic childhood events (emotional neglect, psychological-, physical- and sexual abuse) was assessed using a questionnaire in a sample of 252 adult psychiatric patients with no psychotic or bipolar-I disorder and no cognitive disorder as main diagnosis. Patients were diagnosed for DSM-IV Axis-I and Axis-II disorders using a structured clinical interview. This allowed for the assessment of comorbidity between disorders. Negative memory bias for verbal stimuli was measured using a computer task.
Linear regression models revealed that the frequency of childhood trauma as well as negative memory bias was positively associated with psychiatric comorbidity, separately and above and beyond each other (all <.01).
The results indicate that childhood trauma and negative memory bias may be of importance for a broader spectrum of psychiatric diagnoses, besides the frequently studied affective disorders. Importantly, frequently experiencing traumatic events during childhood increases the risk of comorbid psychiatric disorders.
儿童创伤和负面记忆偏差都与多种精神疾病的发病和严重程度水平有关，如抑郁和焦虑障碍。然而，这些风险因素的研究通常使用同质的非共患样本。因此，缺乏对自然主义精神科样本的研究。此外，我们对童年创伤事件的频率、记忆偏差的强度和共患精神疾病的数量之间的定量关系知之甚少；后者是严重程度的指标。本研究在一个大型自然主义精神科患者样本中检查了童年创伤和负面记忆偏差与精神病理学之间的关系。
在一个没有精神病或双相 I 型障碍且没有认知障碍作为主要诊断的 252 名成年精神科患者样本中，使用问卷评估童年创伤事件（情感忽视、心理、身体和性虐待）的频率。使用结构化临床访谈对患者进行 DSM-IV 轴 I 和轴 II 障碍诊断。这允许评估障碍之间的共病。使用计算机任务测量对言语刺激的负面记忆偏差。
线性回归模型显示，童年创伤的频率以及负面记忆偏差与精神共病呈正相关，单独且彼此独立（均<.01）。
结果表明，除了经常研究的情感障碍外，童年创伤和负面记忆偏差可能对更广泛的精神诊断很重要。重要的是，童年时期经常经历创伤事件会增加共患精神疾病的风险。
