Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
J Affect Disord. 2024 Jan 1;344:577-584. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.10.107. Epub 2023 Oct 18.
Childhood trauma is a risk factor for developing multiple forms of psychopathology, including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and social anxiety. Yet, the mechanisms linking childhood trauma and these psychopathologies remain less clear.
Here we examined whether anhedonia, a reduced ability to experience pleasure, may mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and symptom severity of depression, PTSD, and social anxiety.
A total of 230 trauma-exposed participants aged 18-75 were assessed for lifetime trauma exposure, including general and childhood traumatic events, anhedonia, and symptoms of depression, PTSD, and social anxiety.
Controlling for age, gender, and general lifetime trauma exposure, mediation analyses revealed a significant mediation effect of anhedonia for the relationship between childhood trauma and symptom severity of depression and PTSD, but not social anxiety. To better understand these significant mediation effects, we repeated the analyses separately for childhood abuse and neglect, and then for the various subtypes of each type of childhood trauma. Results showed a significant mediation effect of anhedonia on symptoms of both depression and PTSD in individuals who reported high emotional and sexual abuse levels. F Anhedonia was also found to mediate the relationship between both emotional and physical neglect and symptoms of depression and PTSD.
These findings refine our understanding of the ways in which childhood traumatic experiences may be associated with different mental health problems by increasing anhedonia. Anhedonia may be an important treatment target in survivors of childhood abuse and neglect.
童年创伤是发展多种精神病理学的风险因素，包括抑郁、创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）和社交焦虑。然而，将童年创伤与这些精神病理学联系起来的机制仍不明确。
本研究旨在探讨快感缺失（一种体验愉悦的能力降低）是否可以在童年创伤与抑郁、PTSD 和社交焦虑的症状严重程度之间起到中介作用。
共纳入 230 名 18-75 岁的创伤暴露参与者，评估其一生中的创伤暴露情况，包括一般和儿童期创伤事件、快感缺失以及抑郁、PTSD 和社交焦虑的症状。
在控制年龄、性别和一般终生创伤暴露后，中介分析显示快感缺失对童年创伤与抑郁和 PTSD 症状严重程度之间的关系存在显著的中介效应，但对社交焦虑则没有。为了更好地理解这些显著的中介效应，我们分别针对儿童期虐待和忽视，以及每种类型的儿童期创伤的各种亚型重复了分析。结果表明，在报告高情绪和性虐待水平的个体中，快感缺失对抑郁和 PTSD 症状均有显著的中介作用。F 快感缺失也介导了情绪和身体忽视与抑郁和 PTSD 症状之间的关系。
这些发现通过增加快感缺失，细化了我们对童年创伤经历与不同心理健康问题之间关联方式的理解。快感缺失可能是儿童期虐待和忽视幸存者的一个重要治疗靶点。
