Cited by 1,050Child Abuse and TraumaChild Welfare and AdoptionChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Childhood maltreatment and psychopathology: a case for ecophenotypic variants as clinically and neurobiologically distinct subtypes

Open access
Teicher, Martin H., Samson, Jacqueline A.·2013·American Journal of Psychiatry

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Childhood maltreatment increases risk for psychopathology. For some highly prevalent disorders (major depression, substance abuse, anxiety disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder) a substantial subset of individuals have a history of maltreatment and a substantial subset do not. The authors examined the evidence to assess whether those with a history of maltreatment represent a clinically and biologically distinct subtype. METHOD: The authors reviewed the literature on maltreatment as a risk factor for these disorders and on the clinical differences between individuals with and without a history of maltreatment who share the same diagnoses. Neurobiological findings in maltreated individuals were reviewed and compared with findings reported for these disorders. RESULTS: Maltreated individuals with depressive, anxiety, and substance use disorders have an earlier age at onset, greater symptom severity, more comorbidity, a greater risk for suicide, and poorer treatment response than nonmaltreated individuals with the same diagnoses. Imaging findings associated with these disorders, such as reduced hippocampal volume and amygdala hyperreactivity, are more consistently observed in maltreated individuals and may represent a maltreatment-related risk factor. Maltreated individuals also differ from others as a result of epigenetic modifications and genetic polymorphisms that interact with experience to increase risk for psychopathology. CONCLUSIONS: Phenotypic expression of psychopathology may be strongly influenced by exposure to maltreatment, leading to a constellation of ecophenotypes. While these ecophenotypes fit within conventional diagnostic boundaries, they likely represent distinct subtypes. Recognition of this distinction may be essential in determining the biological bases of these disorders. Treatment guidelines and algorithms may be enhanced if maltreated and nonmaltreated individuals with the same diagnostic labels are differentiated.

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 · 10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.12070957

Cites

146 of 146 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?

  • Environmental factors such as childhood adversity or prolonged exposure to psychosocial stressors contribute to mental disorder risk.

    “a number of environmental factors such as childhood adversity or prolonged exposure to psychosocial stressors (Peedicayil, 2004;Rutten et al., 2013;Teicher & Samson, 2013) contribute to mental disorder risk”

    From The applied implications of epigenetics in anxiety, affective and stress-related disorders - A review and synthesis on psychosocial stress, psychotherapy and prevention (2020) · cites this paper as Teicher & Samson, 2013

    The Conclusions and Major Depressive Disorder and Maltreatment sections identify childhood maltreatment and adversity as risk factors for psychiatric disorders. The Post-traumatic Stress Disorder section also discusses repeated exposure to stressful maltreatment, but the paper does not establish the broader claim that prolonged exposure to psychosocial stressors generally increases mental disorder risk. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.81)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Teicher & Samson's (2013) meta-analysis reported aggregate adjusted odds ratios of 2.2 for depressive disorders, 4.4 for PTSD, 2.4 for anxiety disorders, 2.0 for alcohol use disorders, and 2.3 for drug use disorders.

    “Results indicated aggregate AORs of 2.2 for depressive disorders, 4.4 for PTSD, 2.4 for anxiety disorders, 2.0 for alcohol use disorders, and 2.3 for drug use disorders.”

    From Child Sexual Abuse as a Unique Risk Factor for the Development of Psychopathology: The Compounded Convergence of Mechanisms (2021) · cites this paper as Teicher & Samson 2013

    The Major Depressive Disorder and Maltreatment section reports about a twofold increased risk, and the Anxiety Disorders, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and Substance Use Disorders sections describe elevated risks after childhood maltreatment (pages not supplied). The paper does not report the five stated aggregate adjusted odds ratios or present them as results of its own meta-analysis; its PTSD section instead cites an adjusted odds ratio of 4.86 from a prospective study. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • A history of childhood maltreatment exerts enduring and broad effects on mental health, including social functioning.

    “Childhood maltreatment has long-lasting and pervasive impact on individuals’ psychological health (Teicher and Samson 2013), including social functioning (Simon et al. 2009).”
  • Teicher & Samson (2013) hypothesized that because of its distinct clinical and neurobiological features-namely, physiological and neurohumoral changes that alter brain development trajectories-CM leads to a constellation of "ecophenotypes" that heighten the risk for the phenotypic expression of psychopathology.

    “Taking this concept further, Teicher & Samson (2013) hypothesized that because of its distinct clinical and neurobiological features—namely, physiological and neurohumoral changes that alter brain development trajectories—CM leads to a constellation of “ecophenotypes” that heighten the risk for the phenotypic expression of psychopathology.”
  • Childhood adversity has been associated with 30-70% of the population attributable risk for depression, suicide attempts, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse.

    “Childhood adversity has been associated with 30–70% of the population attributable risk for depression, suicide attempts, anxiety disorders and substance abuse (1).”

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. [105]Teicher MH Anderson CM Polcari A Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced volume in hippocampal subfields CA3, dentate gyrus and subiculum Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in press. PMC3295326 22331913

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Teicher, M. H., & Samson, J. A.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Venue
American Journal of Psychiatry
Published
2013-10
Volume
170
Issue
10
Pages
1114-1133
ISSN
  • 0002-953X (ISSN-L)
  • 1535-7228
OpenAlex
W2029267876
Cited by
1,050
References
146
Citations by year
2026: 66 · 2025: 92 · 2024: 74 · 2023: 96 · 2022: 98 · 2021: 74 · 2020: 95 · 2019: 117 · 2018: 95 · 2017: 76 · 2016: 64 · 2015: 64 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 2
FWCI
8.12
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • American Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • John W. Alden Trust
  • National Institutes of Health (1r01mh091391-01, 5r01da017846-14)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH-091391, R01 MH-66222, MH091391, DA-017846, MH-66222, R01MH066222)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA-017846, R01DA016934)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Child Welfare and Adoption
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
child abuse, ecophenotypes, major depressive disorder, substance use disorders, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, hippocampal volume, epigenetic modifications, gene-environment interaction, age of onset, comorbidities, suicide risk, treatment response, neuroimaging
MeSH terms
Adult, Anxiety Disorders, Mental Disorders, Brain, Child Abuse, Child, Preschool, Depressive Disorder, Major, Major Depressive Disorder, Humans, Phenotype, Psychopathology, Risk Factors, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Suicide, Attempted, Causality, Substance-Related Disorders, Gene-Environment Interaction

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