Childhood trauma and negative memory bias as shared risk factors for psychopathology and comorbidity in a naturalistic psychiatric patient sample

Abstract

BackgroundBoth childhood trauma and negative memory bias are associated with the onset and severity level of several psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety disorders. Studies on these risk factors, however, generally use homogeneous noncomorbid samples. Hence, studies in naturalistic psychiatric samples are lacking. Moreover, we know little about the quantitative relationship between the frequency of traumatic childhood events, strength of memory bias and number of comorbid psychiatric disorders; the latter being an index of severity. The current study examined the association of childhood trauma and negative memory bias with psychopathology in a large naturalistic psychiatric patient sample.MethodsFrequency of traumatic childhood events (emotional neglect, psychological‐, physical‐ and sexual abuse) was assessed using a questionnaire in a sample of 252 adult psychiatric patients with no psychotic or bipolar‐I disorder and no cognitive disorder as main diagnosis. Patients were diagnosed for DSM‐IV Axis‐I and Axis‐II disorders using a structured clinical interview. This allowed for the assessment of comorbidity between disorders. Negative memory bias for verbal stimuli was measured using a computer task.ResultsLinear regression models revealed that the frequency of childhood trauma as well as negative memory bias was positively associated with psychiatric comorbidity, separately and above and beyond each other (all p < .01).ConclusionsThe results indicate that childhood trauma and negative memory bias may be of importance for a broader spectrum of psychiatric diagnoses, besides the frequently studied affective disorders. Importantly, frequently experiencing traumatic events during childhood increases the risk of comorbid psychiatric disorders.

ADHD symptoms in healthy adults are associated with stressful life events and negative memory bias

“…Recent evidence from a large naturalistic psychiatric cohort suggests that negative memory bias may be a cognitive marker for a broad range of mental disorders, including ADHD (Vrijsen et al 2017 ). Importantly, the association of Childhood Trauma, negative memory bias, and psychiatric problems remained when excluding depressed patients from the analyses, for which the link with bias had earlier been shown.…”

“…Hence, Childhood Trauma (early life stress) and recent stressful events (recent life stress) were both association with ADHD symptom severity. Because both the presence as well as the diversity of stressful events has been related to psychopathology (Hovens et al 2010 ; Vrijsen et al 2017 ), we used variables representing the number of events. We also explored the association between life events and inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptom clusters separately.…”

Features of borderline personality disorder as a mediator of the relation between childhood traumatic experiences and psychosis-like experiences in patients with mood disorder

“…Patients with a variety of mental disorders often report CEs [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. In our previous study [17], patients with mood disorders reported CEs more often than non-psychiatric individuals investigated in an earlier study [61].…”

“…The investigation was undertaken with a relatively large and representative sample of mood disorder patients recruited from specialized psychiatric care, and extensive data of self-reported symptoms and experiences was collected. Moreover, we examined a comprehensive set of self-reported data of CEs, an important factor in the aetiology of mood disorders, psychosis and BPD [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40].…”

“…Childhood traumatic experiences (CEs) are an aetiological factor contributing to development of several mental disorders, including mood disorders, psychosis and BPD [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. Both patients with BPD and UHR report CEs often, and especially sexual abuse was suggested to contribute to development of psychosis [41] and BPD [42,43].…”