Childhood Trauma May Shortlen Life by 20 Years

While it may not come as a surprise that survivors of childhood traumas have more difficult lives, a new study says that those children can also expect their lives to be on average, almost 20 years shorter.

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that children who experience six or more traumatic events in their childhood -- events that can include emotional, physical or sexual abuse or household dysfunction -- have an average lifespan 19 years shorter than those of their counterparts who do not suffer that degree of childhood trauma.

"The stressors tend to accumulate in people's lives, and it appears that affects the way they develop and can affect the way they think and their emotional control," said Dr. Robert Anda, who has served as the co-primary investigator on the CDC's Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study.

That stress, he said, functions "like a dose of stress poison that negatively affects how the brain develops and multiple organ systems function," and can ultimately lead to the early deaths observed in the study.

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