Fresh from the press: in 25th anniversary issue of the journal DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Terrie Moffitt, the host of the 2012 Klaus Grawe Think Tank Meeting published the results of the interdisciplinary meeting together with the participating scientists in the article “Childhood exposure to violence and lifelong health: Clinical Intervention science and stress-biology research join forces”.
“Many young people who are mistreated by an adult, victimized by bullies, criminally assaulted, or who witness domestic violence react to this violence exposure by developing behavioral, emotional, or learning problems. What is less well known is that adverse experiences like violence exposure can lead to hidden physical alterations inside a child’s body, alterations that may have adverse effects on life-long health. We discuss why this is important for the field of developmental psychopathology and for society, and we recommend that stress-biology research and intervention science join forces to tackle the problem. We examine the evidence base in relation to stress-sensitive measures for the body (inflammatory reactions, telomere erosion, epigenetic methylation, and gene expression) and brain (mental disorders, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological testing). We also review promising interventions for families, couples, and children that have been designed to reduce the effects of childhood violence exposure. We invite intervention scientists and stress-biology researchers to collaborate in adding stress-biology measures to randomized clinical trials of interventions intended to reduce effects of violence exposure and other traumas on young people.”
Development and Psychopathology 25
also see: http://www.moffittcaspi.com/content/klaus-grawe-think-tank-2012