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Traumatic childhood experiences raise the risks of schizophrenia

You run a higher risk of mental disorder and schizophrenia when you have been traumatised during childhood. Recent study by an international group of researchers from The Netherlands (Maastricht University), Great Britain (Universities of Liverpool & Manchester) and New Zealand (University of Auckland) show this to be the case. They furthermore state that schizophrenia is not a genetic disorder, but caused by a combination of hereditary factors and the environment. 

For decades, the influence of childhood trauma has been a topic of discussion within psychiatric medicine. To end this, researchers re-scrutinized all of the research done into the influence of abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, parent’s death and bullying. They discovered that there is not only a connection, but that childhood trauma nearly triples the risk of schizophrenia.

Researchers state that schizophrenia is not a genetic brain disorder, but is caused by a combination of heritability and environment. Trauma and traumatic experiences play a key role, but other well-known environmental risk factors like being part of an ethnic minority group, growing up in suburban surroundings and the use of cannabis also raise the risks of mental disorder and schizophrenia. According to the researchers, these findings emphasize that schizophrenia can be seen as a social disorder, caused by a combination of our environment and genetic elements.

The results of the research have recently been published in “Schizophrenia Bulletin”. Click here read the article online.