Emotional scars : impact of childhood trauma on depressive and anxiety disorders

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effect of childhood trauma and childhood life-events on the development and course of depressive and anxiety disorders, and to identify risk factors contributing to these associations. In brief, our findings indicate that childhood trauma is an important risk factor for the development of depressive and/or anxiety disorders, especially depressive and comorbid disorders, and predicts a more chronic course of illness. Emotional neglect, as core component of childhood trauma, is of particular relevance and has a predominant and strong negative impact on onset and course of depressive and anxiety disorders. Our mediation analyses demonstrate the lifelong scarring through which childhood trauma may affect cognitive style, personality traits and ultimately psychopathology in adulthood. The findings of this thesis are keys to increased awareness of the negative impact of childhood trauma on psychosocial functioning, personality profile, and psychopathology. Based on our findings, recommendations for Chapter 7 Summary 136 clinical practice and future research have been formulated.The infrastructure for the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (www.nesda.nl) is funded through the Geestkracht program of the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (Zon-MW, grant nummer 10-000-1002) and is supported by participating universities and mental health care organizations (VU University Medical Center, GGZ inGeest, Arkin, Leiden University Medical Center, GGZ Rivierduinen, University Medical Center Groningen, Lentis, GGZ Friesland, GGZ Drenthe, Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare [IQ healthcare], Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research [NIVEL] and Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction [Trimbos]).UBL - phd migration 201