Research reportAdverse childhood experiences and the risk of depressive disorders in adulthood
Section snippets
Methods
The data were collected as part of the ACE Study, a collaboration between Kaiser Permanente (San Diego, CA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta). The study was approved by the institutional review boards of Kaiser Permanente and the Office of Protection from Research Risks at the National Institutes of Health. Potential participants received letters that accompanied the ACE study questionnaire informing them that their participation was voluntary, their answers
Results
Of the 9460 respondents, 54% were women. The mean age of respondents was 56.6 years. Seventy-five percent were white; 42% were college graduates and only 7% had not graduated from high school. The prevalence of a lifetime history of depressive disorders was greater among women than men (28.9% vs. 19.4%), as was the prevalence of recent depressive disorders (15.7% vs. 8.4%). Approximately one in five women reported the presence of a mentally ill household member while they were growing up, with
Discussion
This investigation represents a departure from previous studies characteristically restricted to examination of the association between single forms of abuse and depressive disorders. Our results indicate that the majority of respondents reported at least one ACE and approximately one-third of adults experienced at least two ACEs during their childhood. This finding, and prior publications from the ACE Study Anda et al., 1999, Dube et al., 2002, Felitti et al., 1998, suggest that detection of
Acknowledgements
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study was supported by a grant from the Garfield Memorial Fund.
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