Childhood maltreatment and abuse can have extensive implications on individuals later on in adulthood. To date, numerous studies have found associations between the prevalence of childhood trauma and the global reduction of anatomical structures of the brain, particularly those associated with emotional and stress processing (Ahmed-Leitao et al, 2016; Poletti et al., 2016; Souza-Quiroz et al. 2016). Similarly, many papers have cited functional alterations present with an increased amount of childhood trauma (Duncan et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2014). Considering altered structure and function of emotion and stress areas such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulate and others, …show more content…
Individuals with increased childhood trauma also have been found to suffer from a higher risk of having resistance to the typical treatments that medicine combats their respective mental illnesses with. Affected individuals also have early onsets of disease and more severe symptoms compared to those with reduced amounts of childhood trauma (Wegman & Stetler, 2009; Etain et al., 2013; Garcia et al., …show more content…
In other words, those who meet the clinical standards and criteria often found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Society of a disease are often the only ones labeled and treated (Diagnostic). The DSM-V uses 5 basic criteria to define someone as mentally ill. These include… However, many suffer from some symptoms of a condition, but not all, some only suffer minimally from a symptom whereas another individual suffered much more severely from the same symptom. It is difficult to diagnose mental disease and currently, the DSM-V is the best tool medical professionals have to help identify mental illness. However, those with minimal symptoms can go unnoticed and those individuals too may be suffering just as diagnosed individuals. Previous research has established that increased childhood trauma leads to increased risk of developing a psychiatric disease. The exact mechanism of how this comes about is still largely unknown. Some studies have proposed that it is due to alterations in white matter tracts such as the uncinate fasciculus (Souza-Queiroz et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2014), neuroendocrine changes such as altered glutamate, cortisol, and oxytocin release (Duncan et al., 2015; Fan et al., 2014), genetics