Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-fqc5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T07:26:18.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Childhood adversity and psychosis

from Part II - Social factors and the onset of psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2009

Helen Fisher
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, and Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre Box 63 Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park London UK
Tom Craig
Affiliation:
Section of Social and Cultural Psychiatry Health Service and Population Research Department, Box 33, Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park, London, UK
Craig Morgan
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London
Kwame McKenzie
Affiliation:
University College London
Paul Fearon
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, it was popular to insinuate that the development of mental health problems, particularly schizophrenia, was a result of being brought up in a disturbed family (see Chapter 8). Unfortunately, this led to a family-blaming culture based on little evidence, which, not surprisingly, was met with anger from relatives' support groups. Subsequently, few psychosis researchers have explored potential risk factors relating to the family. However, in the past few years there has been a resurgence of research into how the family environment and adverse childhood experiences may be linked to later development of psychosis (see also Chapter 8). This area of research appears to have come almost full circle and careful consideration of recent research is essential if simplistic and potentially harmful conclusions are to be avoided. In this chapter, we focus on childhood adversity, and begin with a review of the most commonly researched aspects of early adversity and trauma.

Summary of existing literature

Separation from parents or loss of at least one parent

Recent investigations employing reasonably robust methodologies have found a twofold to threefold increased risk of adult psychosis in those who experienced long-term separation from, or death of, at least one parent during childhood, independent of a variety of confounders, including a parental history of mental illness (e.g., Morgan et al., 2007).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Attachment beyond infancy. American Psychologist, 44, 709–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bak, M., Krabbendam, L., Janssen, I.et al. (2005). Early trauma may increase the risk for psychotic experiences by impacting on emotional response and perception of control. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 112, 360–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bebbington, P., Bhugra, D., Singleton, N.et al. (2004). Psychosis, victimisation and childhood disadvantage. British Journal of Psychiatry, 185, 220–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentall, R. P. (1990). The syndromes and symptoms of psychosis: or why you can't play twenty questions with the concept of schizophrenia and hope to win. In Reconstructing Schizophrenia, ed. Bentall, R. P.. London: Routledge, pp. 3–22.
Bifulco, A., Brown, G. W. and Harris, T. O. (1994). Childhood experience of care and abuse (CECA): a retrospective interview measure. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35, 1419–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bifulco, A., Bernazzani, O., Moran, P. M.et al. (2005). The Childhood Experiences of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA.Q) – validation in a community series. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44, 563–81.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment. Vol. 1 of Attachment and Loss. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Separation. Vol. 2 of Attachment and Loss. New York: Basic Books.
Butler, R. W., Mueser, K. T., Sprock, J.et al. (1996). Positive symptoms of psychosis in post-traumatic stress disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 39, 839–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrion, V. G., Weems, C. F., Eliez, S.et al. (2001). Attenuation of frontal asymmetry in pediatric post-traumatic stress disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 50 (12), 943–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Cannon, M.et al. (2005). Moderation of the effect of adolescent-onset cannabis use on adult psychosis by a functional polymorphism in the catechol-O methyltransferase gene: longitudinal evidence of a gene X environment interaction. Biological Psychiatry, 57 (10), 1117–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chadwick, P. (1995). Understanding Paranoia. London: Thorsons.
Chorpita, B. F. and Barlow, D. H. (1998). The development of anxiety: the role of control in the early environment. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 3–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, P. M. and Putnam, F. W. (1992). Effect of incest on self and social functioning: a developmental psychopathology perspective. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 174–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coverdale, J. H. and Turbott, S. H. (2000). Sexual and physical abuse of chronically ill psychiatric outpatients compared with a matched sample of medical outpatients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 188, 440–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crittendon, P. M. and Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Child maltreatment and attachment theory. In Childhood Maltreatment: Theory and Research on the Causes and Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect, ed. Cicchetti, D. and Carlson, V.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 432–63.CrossRef
Darves-Bornoz, J. M., Lemperiere, T., Degiovanni, A.et al. (1995). Sexual victimisation in women with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 30, 78–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, M., Reichenberg, A., Rabinowitz, J.et al. (1999). Behavioural and intellectual markers for schizophrenia in apparently healthy male adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1328–35.Google Scholar
Bellis, M., Chrousos, G., Dorn, L.et al. (1994). Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation in sexually abused girls. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 78, 249–55.Google Scholar
Bellis, M. D., Keshavan, M. S., Clark, D. B.et al. (1999). Developmental traumatology. Part II: brain development. Biological Psychiatry, 45 (10), 1271–84.Google Scholar
Depue, R. and Collins, P. (1999). Neurobiology of the structure of personality: dopamine, facilitation of incentive motivation, and extraversion. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 22, 491–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dill, D. L., Chu, J. A., Grob, M. C.et al. (1991). The reliability of abuse history report: a comparison of two inquiry formats. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 32, 166–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., McClaskey, C. L.et al. (1986). Social competence in children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 51, (2, serial no 213).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., Bates, J. E.et al. (1995). Social information processing patterns partially mediate the effects of early physical abuse on later conduct problems. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 632–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driessen, M., Herrmann, J., Stahl, K.et al. (2000). Magnetic resonance imaging volumes of the hippocampus and the amygdala in women with borderline personality disorder and early traumatization. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57 (12), 1115–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehlers, A. and Clark, D. M. (2000). A cognitive model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Behaviour, Research and Therapy, 38, 319–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Nyman, M.et al. (1994). The relations of emotionality and regulation to children's anger-related reactions. Child Development, 65, 109–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman-Summers, S. and Pope, K. S. (1994). The experience of ‘forgetting’ childhood abuse: a national survey of psychologists. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62 (3), 636–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, H., Morgan, C., Fearon, P.et al. (2006). Childhood maltreatment as a risk factor for psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 81 (suppl. 1), 235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frenkel, E., Kugelmass, M. N. and Ingraham, L. J. (1995). Locus of control and mental health in adolescence and adulthood. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 21, 219–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, S., Smith, L., Fogel, D.et al. (2002). The incidence and influence of early traumatic life events in patients with panic disorder: a comparison with other psychiatric outpatients. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 16, 259–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frith, C. D. (1992). The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia. Hove: Psychology Press.
Gale, K. (1992). Role of GABA in the genesis of chemoconvulsant seizures. Toxicology Letters, 64–65, 417–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1994). Working memory dysfunction in schizophrenia. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 6, 348–57.Google Scholar
Goodman, L., Thompson, K., Weinfurt, K.et al. (1999). Reliability of reports of violent victimisation and post-traumatic stress disorder among men and women with serious mental illness. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 12, 587–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gur, R. C., Moelter, S. T. and Ragland, J. D. (2000). Learning and memory in schizophrenia. In Cognition in Schizophrenia: Impairments, Importance and Treatment Strategies, ed. Sharma, T. and Harvey, P.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 73–91.
Hammersley, P., Dias, A., Todd, G.et al. (2003). Childhood trauma and hallucinations in bipolar affective disorder: a preliminary investigation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 182, 543–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, A., Fowler, D., Freeman, D.et al. (2005). Trauma and hallucinatory experience in psychosis. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 193, 501–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harlow, H. F. and Suomi, S. J. (1971). Production of depressive behaviors in young monkeys. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 13, 246–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, T., Brown, G. W. and Bifulco, A. (1987). Loss of parent in childhood and adult psychiatric disorder: the role of social class position and premarital pregnancy. Psychological Medicine, 16, 641–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janssen, I., Krabbendam, L., Bak, M.et al. (2004). Childhood abuse as a risk factor for psychosis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 109, 38–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, P., Rodgers, B., Murray, R.et al. (1994). Child developmental risk factors for adult schizophrenia in the British 1946 birth cohort. Lancet, 344, 1398–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapur, S. (2003). Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 13–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, J. and Cicchetti, D. (1989). Effects of maltreatment on school-aged children's socioemotional development: assessment in a day camp setting. Developmental Psychology, 25, 516–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumpulainen, K., Räsänen, E., Henttonen, I.et al. (1998). Bullying and psychiatric symptoms among elementary school-age children. Child Abuse and Neglect, 22, 705–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lataster, T., Os, J., Drukker, M.et al. (2006). Childhood victimisation and developmental expression of non-clinical delusional ideation and hallucinatory experiences: victimisation and non-clinical psychotic experiences. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 41 (6), 423–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luthar, S. S. (1991). Vulnerability and resilience: a study of high-risk adolescents. Child Development, 62, 600–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maughan, B. and Rutter, M. (1997). Retrospective reporting of childhood adversity: issues in assessing long-term recall. Journal of Personality Disorders, 11, 19–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May-Chahal, C. and Cawson, P. (2005). Measuring child maltreatment in the United Kingdom: a study of the prevalence of child abuse and neglect. Child Abuse and Neglect, 29, 969–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuire, P., Jones, P. and Harvey, I. (1995). Cannabis and acute psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 13, 161–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, C. and Fisher, H. (2007). Environmental factors in schizophrenia: childhood trauma – a critical review. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 33, 3–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, C., Kirkbride, J., Leff, J.et al. (2007). Parental separation, loss and psychosis in different ethnic groups: a case-control study. Psychological Medicine, 37 (4), 495–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, A. P., Haddock, G. and Tarrier, N. (1995). Intrusive thoughts and auditory hallucinations. Psychological Medicine, 26, 669–79.Google Scholar
Mullen, P. E., Martin, J. L., Anderson, J. C.et al. (1993). Childhood sexual abuse and mental health in adult life. British Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 721–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, T. G. and Rutter, M. (2000). Attachment disorder behavior following early severe deprivation: extension and longitudinal follow-up. English and Romanian Adoptees Study Team. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39 (6), 703–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Offord, D. and Cross, L. (1969). Behavioural antecedents of adult schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 21, 267–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do. Oxford: Blackwell.
Pollak, S. D., Vardi, S., Putzner Bechner, A. M.et al. (2005). Physically abused children's regulation of attention in response to hostility. Child Development, 76 (5), 968–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, F. W., Trickett, P., Helmers, K. et al. (1991). Cortisol abnormalities in sexually abused girls. In New Research Abstracts. Proceedings of the 144th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, ed. Fiester, S. J., Washington, DC, p. 107.
Read, J. (1998). Child abuse and severity of disturbance among adult psychiatric inpatients. Child Abuse and Neglect, 22, 359–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, J. and Argyle, N. (1999). Hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder among adult psychiatric inpatients with a history of child abuse. Psychiatric Services, 50, 1467–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, J., Perry, B. D., Moskowitz, A.et al. (2001). The contribution of early traumatic events to schizophrenia in some patients: a traumagenic neurodevelopmental model. Psychiatry, 64 (4), 319–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, J., Agar, K., Argyle, N.et al. (2003). Sexual and physical abuse during childhood and adulthood as predictors of hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 76, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, J., Os, J., Morrison, A. P.et al. (2005). Childhood trauma, psychosis and schizophrenia: a literature review with theoretical and clinical implications. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 112, 330–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, C. (1989). Multiple Personality Disorder: Diagnosis, Clinical Features, and Treatment. London: John Wiley and Sons.
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalised expectancies for internal control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80, 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, C. A. and Perry, J. C. (2004). Instruments for the assessment of childhood trauma in adults. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 192 (5), 343–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, M., Pickles, A., Murray, R.et al. (2001). Testing hypotheses on specific environmental causal effects on behaviour. Psychological Bulletin, 127 (3), 291–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, M. and Quinton, D. (1984). Parental psychiatric disorder: effects on children. Psychological Medicine, 14 (4), 853–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saleptsi, E., Bichescu, D., Rockstroh, B.et al. (2004). Negative and positive childhood experiences across developmental periods in psychiatric patients with different diagnoses – an exploratory study. BMC Psychiatry, 4, 40–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salzinger, S., Feldman, R. S., Hammer, M.et al. (1993). The effects of physical abuse on children's social relationships. Child Development, 64, 169–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saykin, A. J., Gur, R. C., Gur, R. E.et al. (1991). Neuropsychological functioning in schizophrenia: selective impairment in memory and learning. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 618–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spataro, J., Mullen, P. E., Burgess, P. M.et al. (2004). Impact of child sexual abuse on mental health. British Journal of Psychiatry, 184, 416–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spauwen, J., Krabbendam, L., Lieb, R.et al. (2006). Impact of psychological trauma on the development of psychotic symptoms: relationship with psychosis proneness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 188, 527–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitzer, M. (1995). A neurocomputational approach to delusions. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 36, 83–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Startup, M. (1999). Schizotypy, dissociative experiences and childhood abuse: relationships among self-report measures. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 333–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, M. B. (1997). Hippocampal volume in women victimised by childhood sexual abuse. Psychological Medicine, 27 (4), 951–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, C. G., Norman, J., Murphy, M.et al. (1991). Diagnosed intellectual and emotional impairment among parents who seriously mistreat their children: prevalence, type and outcome in a court sample. Child Abuse and Neglect, 15, 389–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teicher, M. H., Glod, C. A., Surrey, J.et al. (1993). Early childhood abuse and limbic system ratings in adult psychiatric outpatients. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 5 (3), 301–6.Google Scholar
Teicher, M. H., Andersen, S. L., Polcari, A.et al. (2003). The neurobiological consequences of early stress and childhood maltreatment. Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews, 27, 33–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, E. and DiForio, D. (1997). Schizophrenia: a neural diathesis–stress model. Psychological Review, 104, 667–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicks, S., Hjern, A., Gunnell, D.et al. (2005). Social adversity in childhood and the risk of developing psychosis: a national cohort study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 1652–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, R., Bebbington, P., Pearon, J.et al. (2000). The social context of insight in schizophrenia. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 35 (11), 500–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitfield, C., Dube, S., Felitti, V.et al. (2005). Adverse childhood experiences and hallucinations. Child Abuse and Neglect, 29, 797–810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wurr, J. C. and Partridge, I. M. (1996). The prevalence of a history of childhood sexual abuse in an acute adult inpatient population. Child Abuse and Neglect, 20, 867–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, M., Read, J., Barker-Collo, S.et al. (2001). Evaluating and overcoming barriers to taking abuse histories. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 32, 407–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zlotnick, C., Tam, T. and Robertson, M. J. (2004). Adverse childhood events, substance abuse, and measures of affiliation. Addictive Behaviors, 29, 1177–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zubin, J. and Spring, B. (1977). Vulnerability – a new view of schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 86 (2), 103–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Childhood adversity and psychosis
    • By Helen Fisher, Department of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, and Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre Box 63 Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park London UK, Tom Craig, Section of Social and Cultural Psychiatry Health Service and Population Research Department, Box 33, Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park, London, UK
  • Edited by Craig Morgan, Kwame McKenzie, University College London, Paul Fearon
  • Book: Society and Psychosis
  • Online publication: 07 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544064.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Childhood adversity and psychosis
    • By Helen Fisher, Department of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, and Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre Box 63 Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park London UK, Tom Craig, Section of Social and Cultural Psychiatry Health Service and Population Research Department, Box 33, Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park, London, UK
  • Edited by Craig Morgan, Kwame McKenzie, University College London, Paul Fearon
  • Book: Society and Psychosis
  • Online publication: 07 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544064.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Childhood adversity and psychosis
    • By Helen Fisher, Department of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, and Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre Box 63 Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park London UK, Tom Craig, Section of Social and Cultural Psychiatry Health Service and Population Research Department, Box 33, Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park, London, UK
  • Edited by Craig Morgan, Kwame McKenzie, University College London, Paul Fearon
  • Book: Society and Psychosis
  • Online publication: 07 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544064.007
Available formats
×