Poor adult health created in childhood.

• Position: Psychology - Clinical report

Negative experiences in childhood may alter not only an adult's psychology, but his or her physical health into middle age and beyond. In the latest findings from a long-term study of individuals who have been tracked from birth through their mid 30s, a team led by researchers from Duke University, Durham, N.C., has found sustained health risks that apparently stem from childhood abuse, neglect, social isolation, or economic hardship.

At age 32, the study subjects who had experienced these childhood traumas were more likely to exhibit depression, chronic inflammation, and metabolic markers of increased health risk. These three factors are known to be associated with the physiology of stress-response systems and predict higher risk for age-related illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dementia. Adults who had been maltreated as children are twice as likely to suffer major depression and chronic inflammation. Children who grew up poor or socially isolated are twice as likely to show metabolic risk markers at age 32.

"What we're learning is that poor adult health is, in part, manufactured in childhood," relates Avshalom Caspi, professor of psychology and neuroscience. 'The human stress response is implicated not only in psychological conditions, but in other health...