Morgan Snellbaker

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1104
19 March 2020
Synthesis

During my inquiry research process on the links between childhood trauma and mental

illness seen in adulthood, I have found sources that predict the cause and effects of trauma from

different perspectives, whether that be psychological or biological. The first source I want to

present is called ​Healing Childhood Trauma in Adults. ​Written by Dr. Todd Thatcher, the chief

medical officer at Valley Behavioral Health, offers expert perspectives on how many are affected

by mental illnesses, the most common diagnoses of mental illnesses, the most common

misconceptions, and where to find them. With expertise in the health field, Dr. Thatcher provides

an informative article defining traumatic events, symptoms, misconceptions, and treatments. The

goal of this article was to inform the public of the common misconceptions when it comes to

adults affected by childhood trauma. He offers a multitude of treatments for overcoming

childhood trauma in response to the various symptoms and circumstances of a person’s trauma.

This source allows the audience to get a frame of reference of the topic before being introduced

to larger details, similar to an article written by The National Child Traumatic Stress Network

(NCTSN).

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network was created by Congress in 2000 as part of

the Children’s Health Act to raise the standard of care and increase access to services for

children and families who experience or witness traumatic events. This article wants to develop

ways of coping for children whose families and home do not provide consistent safety, comfort,

and protection, this will allow them to survive and function on a day to day basis. It highlights
that children who have experienced complex trauma often have difficulty identifying,

expressing, and managing emotions, and may have limited language for feeling states. Both

articles take on a definition-oriented approach to addressing this problem to the audience.

However, this problem can be explored through the use of studies.

William Copeland wrote an article called ​Multi-Decade Study Found Childhood Trauma

​ hich explores The Great Smoky

Exposure Common, Raising Health Risks in Adulthood, w

Mountains study. Copeland is a clinical psychologist and epidemiologist, currently working as a

professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical

Center, co-director of the Center for Developmental Epidemiology, and faculty fellow at the

Center for Child and Family Policy. With his research focused on understanding the

developmental origins of childhood mental illness and its functioning across the lifespan,

Copeland offers excellent analysis of The Great Smoky Mountains study. The study mentioned,

annually observed 1,420 children from 1993 to 2015, its results were based on analysis of over

11,000 individual interviews. From that, the study suggested that childhood trauma casts a long

and wide-ranging shadow association with an elevated risk for many adult psychiatric disorders,

with impacts in the form of diminished health, financial and academic success, and social life.

This source obtains information that cohesively works alongside my previous sources. These

sources begin to explain the link between childhood trauma and its effects in adulthood, but this

source goes in-depth, pointing towards specific effects. In correlation, an NPR article goes into

further detail about the analysis of The Great Smoky Mountains study.

Erin Blake, a journalist for NPR, wrote an article called, “Should Childhood Trauma Be

Treated As A Public Health Crisis?” Her work has appeared in outlets such as ​The Washington
Post, National Geographic, The Atlantic, TIME, Smithsonian, ​and more, which presents herself

as a credible source. In correlation to William Copeland’s research, Blake’s research also

provides analysis of The Great Smoky Mountains study. Blake recalled that in the study after

researchers adjusted factors such as bias, race, and sex, the impact of childhood psychiatric

problems and hardships remained. Also, the participants with histories of trauma were more

likely to experience health problems, participate in risky behavior, struggle financially, and have

violent relationships or problems making friends. The goal of this article is to create the same

urgency when it comes to childhood trauma as outbreaks of Hepatitis A or influenza. A more

effective approach would be to treat this as a public health crisis, rather than limit treatment to

individuals because this is a problem that affects the brain.

Nadine Harris offers her expert analysis on the effects of childhood trauma on the

different areas of the brain. Starting as a pediatrician, she began studying the correlation between

how childhood stress and trauma leads to declining health in adulthood, and continued her

research as medical director of the Bayview Child Health Center and founder of the Center for

Youth Wellness. Her analysis focuses on The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, which

asked 17,500 adults about their history of exposure to what they called “adverse childhood

experiences”. These would include physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; physical or emotional

neglect; parental mental illness, substance dependence, incarcertaion; parental separation or

divroce; or domestic violence. For every yes, a person would get a point to their ACE score. This

study found that there was a dose-response relationship between ACEs and health outcomes: the

higher the score, the worse the health outcome. Ultimately, helping researchers better understand

how exposure to early adversity affects the developing brains and bodies of children. It affects
areas like the nucleus accumbens, the pleasure and reward center of the brains that is implicated

in substance dependence. It inhibits the prefrontal cortex, which is necessary for impulse control

and executive function, a critical area for learning. Similar findings can be found in an article

written by The Foundations Recovery Network.

The Foundations Recovery Network (FRN) offers a continuum of care for those battling

with co-occurring disorders including outpatient services, vocational rehabilitation, and

residential programs. They wrote an article called, ​The Unfortunate Connection Between

Childhood Trauma and Addiction in Adulthood, ​which covers how alterations in the brain can

lead to damaging self-medicating techniques. It explains how the brain begins growing and

maturing during childhood by creating, strengthening, and occasionally discarding neural

connections, which compose a network between neurons that imbue the brains with its many

functions. The growth and physical structure of the brain is significantly affected by a person’s

experiences, both negative and positive. Negative experience of childhood maltreatment is

believed to be the cause of certain anomalies in brain structure that results in cognitive,

behavioral, and social impairments, which can impede or alter the brain’s development. In

regards to childhood trauma, those who have experienced such have shown an increased

tendency to become dependent on alcohol and drugs as a means of self-medicating to alleviate

the effects of being victimized. By understanding when a person experienced trauma during

childhood could mark them as being at higher risk for addiction when there might not have been

any other indicators, thus allowing them to take more preventative measures.

Although each of my sources provide a different perspective towards the connection

between childhood trauma and mental illness in adulthood, they are connected. Each share the
same effects of childhood trauma, but differ in their approach to the question. There are a variety

of effects childhood trauma can have on a person, however, I think I have highlighted the most

prevalent that will allow me to help others understand this topic.