Overview
Childhood trauma (i.e. abuse or neglect) is an established environmental risk factor for serious mental illness. It has been studied as a contributor to major depression and psychotic disorders, where it plays a clear aetiological involvement, although the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Childhood trauma is likely to interact with genetic risk in the development of the disease and its poor clinical outcomes, with mechanisms that include chronic effects on the HPA axis and increased inflammation, as well as alterations in DNA methylation, which may play an important role in these pathways.
We propose a symposium addressing these various mechanisms and how they might influence not only psychosis onset but also outcome and antipsychotic treatment response. This will cover our current understanding of both the molecular mechanisms and consequences of stressful events in childhood, with evidence from investigations of people with psychosis and animal models of early life stress. We shall discuss the effects this environmental risk factor has on treatment outcomes.
Objectives
• To understand that environmental factors such as childhood trauma interact with genetic risk and epigenetic processes in the aetiology of severe mental illness.
• To understand the impact of the experience of trauma in early life on the subsequent development of psychotic illness.
• To understand the possible mechanisms whereby early life trauma contributes to the development of schizophrenia, with evidence from clinical studies and animal models.
• To understand the impact of early life trauma on the outcome of treatment interventions in schizophrenia and on psychopathological and functional trajectories of people with a psychotic disorder.
Speakers
Chair: Professor Gavin Reynolds, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, RDaSH NHS Trust, Doncaster
Professor Gary Donohoe, School of Psychology, NUI Galway, Galway
Dr Camila Loureiro, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, São Paulo
Dr Luis Alameda, Department of Psychiatry, Service of General Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne
