ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES (A.C.E.)

This information is eye-opening!!

The impact of adverse childhood experiences on the mental and physical health of adults is now widely recognized thanks to research which started at the Kaiser Permanente’s obesity clinic in San Diego, California, where staff sought to explain why 50% of participants dropped out of their weight reduction programmes.

Researchers asked over 17,000 Kaiser Permanente volunteer patients about different types of childhood trauma that had been identified in earlier research literature, namely:

  • Physical abuse
  • Sexual abuse
  • Emotional abuse
  • Physical neglect
  • Emotional neglect
  • Exposure to domestic violence
  • Household substance abuse
  • Household mental illness
  • Parental separation or divorce
  • Incarcerated household member

They discovered that the number of ACEs experienced by an individual was strongly associated with adulthood high-risk health behaviours such as smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, promiscuity and severe obesity and correlated with ill-health including depression, heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease and shortened lifespan.

Compared to an ACE score of zero, having four adverse childhood experiences was associated with:

  • A seven-fold (700%) increase in alcoholism
  • A doubling of risk of being diagnosed with cancer
  • A four-fold increase in emphysema.

An ACE score above six was associated with a 30-fold (3000%) increase in attempted suicide. Source: Wikipedia

In the UK and elsewhere, when new patients join a GP practice and are given a questionnaire to fill in based on the above criterion there is often a dramatic improvement in their health. For many it is the first time as adults that they have reflected on their childhood experiences. Just acknowledging what happened to them at a time when they were vulnerable and knew no other way of life leads to realisations and a release of trapped emotions, which unbeknown had been profoundly affecting their mental and physical wellbeing all their life. With counselling the results are even better.