Generational study looks for biological links between adverse childhood experiences and self-harm

New research from the University of Bristol is the first to use a large generational family study to examine links between childhood trauma, the impact of inflammation and self-harm.

  • 13th September 2019

New research from the University of Bristol is the first to use a
large generational family study to examine links between childhood trauma, the
impact of inflammation and self-harm.

Epidemiologists examined 4,300 young
people in Bristol’s Children of the 90s study to see if adverse childhood
experiences (ACEs) such as experiencing abuse, witnessing domestic violence or
having separated parents are linked to self-harm at the age of 16.

While there is existing evidence to
link ACEs and teenage self-harm it was not known if biological inflammation,
sparked by the ‘fight or flight’ response to stress, could help to explain this
association. Previous work has looked at adversity and inflammatory
markers and at inflammation and self-harm but this is the first study to look
at all three together. Research looking at inflammation and self-harm in young
people is also rare as the vast majority of studies are on adult samples.

They found that for each extra type
of ACE, a young person is 11 per cent more likely to self-harm at the age of 16,
and 22 per cent more likely to have self-harmed with suicidal intent.
Researchers did not find any evidence that levels of inflammation taken from
blood samples at the age of 10 years old were associated with childhood trauma
and self-harm.

Published in a special edition of the Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry, this research is one of several studies funded by the Medical
Research Foundation and the Medical Research Council (MRC) to examine the
biological underpinnings of self-harm in teenagers.

Lead author, Senior Research
Associate Dr Abby Russell, will be taking part in a webinar
for the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health on Friday 6
September to mark the special issue of the Journal. She said:

“This is the first study to
directly examine whether the relationship between adverse childhood experiences
and self-harm is due to inflammation.

“Our findings confirm that ACEs are
a useful indicator of an increased risk of teenage self-harm. By making use of
a large longitudinal study we were also able to conclude that inflammatory markers
in childhood are probably not a good indicator of risk of later
self-harm.

“This is all helpful to direct
future research towards alternative biological and psychological pathways for
the risk of self-harm and suicide. It also provides more evidence of the
importance of preventing children from experiencing adversity, supporting the
need for local authority initiatives like Bristol City Council who are
developing an ACE-aware city, with interventions to help protect the mental
health of future generations.”