After Abuse, Changes in the Brain

It is a well known fact that children who are abused have a higher "risk of developing mental problems later in life."(1) This is the basis of the information presented in the article written by Carey Benedict in this weeks health section of the New York Times. In the past 10 years researchers have been running tests on animals showing that affectionate mothering allows the offspring to respond better to stress. The affection shown by the mother actually has the affect of altering genes in the child making it better suited for stressful situations, and this child then passes that trait on to the following generation. They have now found these same results in the brains of humans. By studying the brains of "12 people who committed suicide and who had difficult childhoods" and "12 people who had committed suicide and who had not suffered abuse or neglect as children." (1) In the brains of the 12 abused they found genetic alterations which suggest that they are more "biologically sensitive to stress." (1) They had 40 percent less of the receptors needed to clear cortisol, the hormone that circulates through the body when stressed. 

This study is very interesting. I never thought that abuse would actually affect your genes, but finding this out is a really good advancement in medicine. If they can pinpoint this genetic malfunction in people they may be able to prevent a lot of suicides. I think it should also be an eye opener to the parents, as well. Because when you abuse your kids this study proves it has a much more permanent affect than they think.