This is warned by researchers from several scientific and medical centers in Norway, whose article was published in Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
Previous research has shown that childhood trauma affects the immune system and may increase the risk of developing autoimmune diseases in adulthood. And in general, difficult childhood experiences years later have a negative impact on mental and physical health. The authors of a new study decided to test whether there is a link between childhood abuse and the risk of developing multiple sclerosis – a chronic autoimmune disease in which the myelin sheath of the nerve fibers of the brain and spinal cord suffers. The exact causes of the disease, which is more common in women, are still unknown.
The researchers analyzed data on almost 78,000 women in Norway. These women joined the study between 1999 and 2008, and information about their health was collected up to 2018. Among other things, the participants were asked if they experienced any form of violence before the age of 18. Almost 14 and a half thousand participants admitted this.
During the observation period, the diagnosis of “multiple sclerosis” was made to 300 participants. Among them, they experienced a difficult childhood, as among those who did not get sick, there were 19% of them.
Analysis of the data showed that women who experienced childhood abuse do have an increased chance of developing multiple sclerosis. Victims of sexual abuse most often experience the disease in adulthood (risk increased by 65%), in second place – emotional (psychological) abuse (risk increased by 40%), and in third place – physical violence (risk increased by 31%) . The risk reaches 66% if a woman has been a victim of two types of violence, and 93% if she has experienced all three types of violence at once. In their calculations, the researchers took into account such risk factors for multiple sclerosis as smokingobesity, level of education and income.
The biological mechanisms underlying the discovered phenomenon have yet to be established. However, the authors of the study suggested that as a result of chronic stressAssociated with violence, there is a violation of neural connections between the adrenal glands and such parts of the brain as the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, which leads to a malfunction of the immune system.
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