Childhood Stress: According to new research, stress and difficult experiences faced in childhood can have a profound impact on mental health. Childhood trauma can have lasting effects on the brain.
Stress in Childhood Can Affect Brain: According to new research, stress and difficult experiences faced in childhood can have a profound effect on mental health. Childhood trauma can have lasting effects on the brain. It can even cause mental disorders. This research shows that childhood difficulties cause permanent changes in the structure and immunity of the brain, increasing the risk of depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental illnesses.
"The immune system not only fights infections, but it also plays an important role in shaping our mental health," said Sara Poletti, senior researcher at the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan, Italy. She said that childhood stress alters this system, increasing the risk of mental illnesses decades later. The research has identified specific inflammatory markers that are associated with childhood stress.
Mood disorders are a leading cause of illness and death.
This research, published in the journal 'Brain Medicine', focuses on the use of immunomodulatory agents (interleukin 2) to treat mood disorders (depression and other mental disorders). According to the World Health Organization, mood disorders are a major cause of disability, disease and death worldwide. In the future, the rate of persistence of depression may be around 12 percent and that of bipolar disorder may be up to 2 percent.
Research has found that disturbances in the immune system, especially the inflammatory response system, play an important role in mood disorders. This disturbance can become a major cause of these disorders. Research has found that inflammatory markers, which are associated with childhood stress, can become the basis for developing new and better treatments for mental illnesses in the future. These indicators will help doctors understand how to treat the disease.
Reduce the risk of mental illnesses.
Sara Poletti says she wants to further understand the relationship between the immune system and the environment. Her goal is to develop preventive strategies that reduce the risk of mental illnesses, especially in people with stressful childhoods. This research is a big step toward understanding and focusing psychiatric care on prevention.
