CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 70Child Abuse and TraumaStress Responses and CortisolPosttraumatic Stress Disorder Research

Early Trauma and Inflammation: Role of Familial Factors in a Study of Twins

Open access
Rooks, Cherie, Veledar, Emir, Goldberg, Jack, Bremner, J. Douglas, Vaccarino, Viola·2012·Psychosomatic Medicine
DOI 10.1097/psy.0b013e318240a7d8PMC PMC3307790
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Although early trauma (trauma in childhood) has been linked to adult inflammation and adult disease of inflammatory origin, it remains unknown whether this relationship is due to long-term consequences of early life stress or other familial factors. METHODS: We examined 482 male middle-aged twins (241 pairs) born between 1946 and 1956 from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. Childhood traumatic experiences, before the age of 18 years, were measured retrospectively with the Early Trauma Inventory and included physical, sexual, emotional abuse and general trauma. Lifetime major depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease were also assessed. Plasma C-reactive protein and interleukin 6 were measured to determine levels of inflammation. Mixed-effects regression models with a random intercept for pair were used to separate between- and within-twin pair effects. RESULTS: When twins were analyzed as individuals, increasing levels of early trauma were positively related to C-reactive protein (p = .03) but not to interleukin 6 (p = .12). When estimating within- and between-pair effects, only the between-pair association of early trauma with the inflammatory markers remained significant. CONCLUSIONS: The link between early trauma and inflammation is largely explained by familial factors shared by the twins because levels of inflammation were highest when both twins were exposed to trauma. Exposure to early trauma may be a marker for an unhealthy familial environment. Clarification of familial factors associated with early stress and adult inflammation will be important to uncover correlates of stress and disease.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1097/psy.0b013e318240a7d8

Cites

43 of 43 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Most findings, but not all, suggest a robust correlation between ELS/CT and adult CRP levels.

    “Most findings, but not all, suggest a robust correlation between ELS/CT and adult CRP levels (165, 166, 170, 199–202).”

    From Developmental Trajectories of Early Life Stress and Trauma: A Narrative Review on Neurobiological Aspects Beyond Stress System Dysregulation (2019) · cites this paper as [170]

    The Results (Overall Sample Comparisons) report a positive association between early trauma and adult CRP, and the Discussion says this agrees with several earlier studies. But the Discussion also says the association was attenuated after adjustment for risk factors and eliminated after accounting for familial factors; the Within-pair Comparisons found no CRP association. This paper therefore supports a qualified association, not an unqualified robust correlation. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Positive ELS/CT history is an independent risk factor for peripheral immune dysregulation and long-term, low-grade inflammatory excess (a pro-inflammatory phenotype) in adulthood.

    “There is growing evidence suggesting that positive ELS/CT history is an independent risk factor for peripheral immune dysregulation and long-term, low-grade inflammatory excess (i.e., a pro-inflammatory phenotype) in adulthood (101, 164–172).”

    From Developmental Trajectories of Early Life Stress and Trauma: A Narrative Review on Neurobiological Aspects Beyond Stress System Dysregulation (2019) · cites this paper as [170]

    The Results (Overall Sample Comparisons) link early trauma to higher adult CRP, supporting an association with inflammation. But the Results (Within-pair Comparisons) found no general within-pair association, and the Discussion says shared familial factors may explain the link. The paper therefore does not establish early trauma as an independent risk factor or demonstrate persistent immune dysregulation. (LLM, conf=0.89)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Total early trauma exposure is associated with elevated C-reactive protein, driven by exposure to emotional abuse.

    “Consistent with this, total early trauma exposure was associated with elevated CRP, which was driven by exposure to emotional abuse (Rooks et al., 2012).”

    From Developmental psychoneuroendocrine and psychoneuroimmune pathways from childhood adversity to disease (2017) · cites this paper as Rooks et al., 2012

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [19]First MB Spitzer RL Williams JBW Gibbon M Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV - Patient Edition (SCID-P) 1995 American Psychiatric Press Washington, D.C.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Rooks, C., Veledar, E., Goldberg, J., Bremner, J. D., & Vaccarino, V.
Affiliations
Emory University (US)
Corresponding author
Vaccarino, Viola
ORCID
Venue
Psychosomatic Medicine
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Published
2012-02
Volume
74
Issue
2
Pages
146-152
ISSN
0033-3174 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1097/psy.0b013e318240a7d8
PMC
PMC3307790
OpenAlex
W2062930504
Semantic Scholar
44afb8aa1cf3e8657659f56dd8cbfd040fcdb112
Cited by
70
References
43
Citations by year
2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 5
FWCI
9.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychosomatic Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • FIU - Digital Commons (Florida International University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000454)
  • National Institute on Aging (R01AG026255)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL068630, K24HL077506, R01HL088726)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH056120, K24MH076955)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (K12GM000680)
  • National Center for Research Resources (M01RR000039)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
Keywords
early childhood trauma, early life stress, inflammation, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, family factors, twin pairs, Vietnam Era Twin Registry, cardiovascular risk factors, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Child, Child Abuse, Cross-Sectional Studies, Major Depressive Disorder, Diseases in Twins, Humans, Inflammation, Life Change Events, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Social Class, Social Environment, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Stress, Psychological, Twins, Biomarkers, Interleukin-6, Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review