People who experience childhood maltreatment frequently have perturbations in their brain architecture, regardless of whether they develop psychiatric symptoms, but a study in Biological Psychiatry found additional alterations in people who don't develop symptoms. The study, by researchers at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, suggests that the additional changes may help compensate for the effects of maltreatment.
The findings shed light on the mystery of why some children are susceptible to the effects of maltreatment—which is a major risk factor for psychiatric complications including anxiety, depression, addiction, and suicide—and others are resilient.
"These are important findings as they provide a radically new perspective on resilience. Maltreated individuals without psychiatric symptoms are not unaffected or immune. Rather, they have additional brain changes that enable them to effectively compensate," said lead author Kyoko Ohashi, Ph.D.
[For more on this study by Elsevier, go to https://medicalxpress.com/news...nt-maltreatment.html]
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