Department of Psychiatry, Division of Consultation Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland.
Department of Psychiatry, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2022 Sep;143:105850. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105850. Epub 2022 Jun 22.
Previous studies have shown that neurodevelopmental characteristics of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as their accumulation and minimal age at exposure, might moderate their impact on clinical expression of psychosis. However, it remains unknown as to whether specific neurodevelopmental characteristics of ACEs are associated with biological alterations observed in psychosis. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that younger minimal age at exposure as well as greater accumulation and severity of ACEs are associated with systemic biological dysregulations captured by the allostatic load (AL) index in patients with psychosis. The present study included 65 inpatients with psychotic disorders and 56 healthy controls (HCs). A total of 15 biomarkers were used to measure the AL index. Individuals with psychosis had significantly higher AL index as well as they reported greater accumulation and severity of ACEs compared to HCs. After adjustment for age, sex, the number of education years and the dosage of antipsychotics, greater accumulation of ACEs and younger minimal age at exposure were significantly associated with higher AL index in patients with psychosis. None of neurodevelopmental characteristics of ACEs was associated with the AL index in HCs. Our findings indicate that greater accumulation of ACEs and younger minimal age at exposure are related to biological dysregulations captured by the AL index in patients with psychosis. Future studies investigating the role of ACEs in the pathophysiology of psychosis need to consider their neurodevelopmental characteristics. It is also important to further explore timing of exposure to indicate critical developmental periods related to psychosis risk and better inform potential interventions.
先前的研究表明，童年逆境（ACEs）的神经发育特征，如它们的积累和暴露的最小年龄，可能会调节它们对精神病临床表达的影响。然而，目前尚不清楚 ACEs 的特定神经发育特征是否与精神病中观察到的生物学改变有关。在这项研究中，我们检验了这样一个假设，即较小的最小暴露年龄以及 ACEs 的更大积累和严重程度与精神病患者的全身生物学失调有关，这种失调由适应负荷（AL）指数来捕获。本研究纳入了 65 名精神病住院患者和 56 名健康对照者（HCs）。共使用了 15 种生物标志物来测量 AL 指数。精神病患者的 AL 指数明显更高，并且他们报告 ACEs 的积累更多，严重程度更高。在调整年龄、性别、受教育年限和抗精神病药物剂量后，ACEs 的更大积累和更小的最小暴露年龄与精神病患者的 AL 指数更高显著相关。ACEs 的神经发育特征均与 HCs 的 AL 指数无关。我们的研究结果表明，ACEs 的更大积累和更小的最小暴露年龄与精神病患者的 AL 指数所捕获的生物学失调有关。未来研究需要考虑 ACEs 在精神病发病机制中的作用，研究 ACEs 的神经发育特征。进一步探讨暴露时间以确定与精神病风险相关的关键发育阶段并提供更好的干预措施也很重要。
