This article below is about the impact of PTSD on cognitive function in middle-age women. It talks about possible cellular aging and of course I couldn't help but think of ACEs that happen in childhood for the women studied and how much and how early girls are impacted. We know the answer is a lot.
Mostly, I'm filled with questions.
- What's the impact on puberty, periods and sexual health and development?
- What's the impact on childbearing, pregnancy, fertility post-partum experiences?
- What's the impact for breastfeeding mothers? What's the impact, if any, on offspring?
- What's the impact on girls and women at all ages and stages of development when there has been traumatic stress?
- What's the impact when it comes to perimenopause and menopause and even early menopause? I'm quite sure my ACE score is related to my early menopause.
- What are the implications for those with PTSD when it comes to fertility treatments or if and how to balance mental health issues with hormone changes at all ages and stages?
- And what' differences are there in women who have and have not had treatment for PTSD and what are the differences based on various types of treatment?
There's a lot to think about in this piece for this Parenting with ACEs community. Are the experiences of girls and women considered closely and carefully and specifically enough?
Of course the experiences of all people and all parents matter but it's tiring how often the needs, abilities, functions of the female body are dismissed, ignore or overlooked. This would be frustrating if only a small percentage of women had PTSD but it's even more frustrating considering the rates of PTSD in women are twice as high (or higher) in women. It's relevant.
And what happens to men and fathers and boys matters as well. Of course. I'm not arguing for any less research or understanding for males with PTSD or ACEs. Nope. I simply want the experiences of men and women with PTSD to be routinely considered.
As a parents with PTSD who is parenting with ACEs I do think a bit about my own cognitive function in old age, especially reading articles such as this one. What type of elderly parents will my own daughter have? It's hard to think much about that as she is young but it certainly crossed my mind this morning after reading this.
Anyhow, there are good questions and good research and lots of lines of inquiry opening up. That's hopeful. I can't wait until there is more research, more resources, more support and readily available information about what is most helpful and healing. I can't wait until ACEs questions are routinely considered in studies such as this one.
The are two excerpts from this article below, The first, to me, is pretty depressing but won't surprise anyone here.. The second offers hope and hints at the promise of the brain's neuro-plasticity. It shows why ACEs science is so important in raising awareness, resources and hope
Excerpt 1:
Previous evidence has shown that PTSD is twice as common in women as men, yet most PTSD research focuses on male veterans or male patients recruited from healthcare clinics. The understanding of how the disorder is manifested in women has thus been hampered.
"We really need more work on this in civilians, non-treatment-seeking individuals, and particularly women," Dr Sumner said.
To help address the need, the investigators evaluated data on 14,029 women from the Nurses' Health Study II. The study included US nurses recruited in 1989 who were aged 25 to 42 years at baseline; 95% were white.
The participants' lifetime trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms were assessed in 2008. Cognitive function was assessed in 2014-2016. At the time of cognitive assessment, the average age of the women was 49 to 69 years.
Women who had not been exposed to trauma were compared to women with probable PTSD symptoms. After fully adjusting for age, sociodemographic factors, depression, and medical factors, women with probable PTSD symptoms performed significantly worse with respect to psychomotor speed and attention (P = .04), learning and working memory (P < .02), and overall cognition (P < .0001).
More severe PTSD, defined as having four to seven symptoms, corresponded with greater deficits in learning and working memory, Dr Sumner noted.
Sizeable Effect
"We found that the mean difference for the highest level of PTSD symptoms was equivalent to that of nearly 4 years of aging, so it was a sizable effect that we're observing," she said.
The effect was somewhat attenuated in full-adjustment models (P = .02) but was still significant.
In addition, each year of increasing age was associated with significantly worse cognitive performance.
Excerpt 2:
Another important question is whether treatment of PTSD and/or depression could be associated with improvements in cognitive function, Dr Sumner told Medscape Medical News.
She noted a small pilot study in which veterans with PTSD who participated in mindfulness-based stress reduction showed improvements after undergoing treatment.
Comments (0)