Child abuse may cause health issues later in life
Posted April 4th, 2008 by minortopics | via www.abcnews.go.comA new government report says that one in 50 children are abused in the first year of their life. Of course we know the psychological damage child abuse can cause, but the report also states that it can affect children physically all the way into adulthood:
“Kids unfortunately who are being maltreated show problems in brain development,” said Ileana Arias, director of the CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, who, along with the Administration for Children and Families, created the report. Maltreatment can begin “a trajectory of a number of negative outcomes, including health outcomes,” according to Arias.
Now, the mechanism behind those problems may have been pinned down.
A recent study revealed a physiological connection between child abuse and feelings of intense pain. Researchers at UCLA and the University of North Carolina compared pain responses in a group of women with and without irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), with surprising results.