US Children at Significantly Higher Risk for Maltreatment Associated With Reduced Cerebral Gray Matter

[Emily]

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/755161

From Medscape Medical News > Psychiatry

US Children at Significantly Higher Risk for Maltreatment

Yael Waknine

December 9, 2011 ? Rates of violent childhood death and infant removal from the home are higher in the United States than in a number of other countries, a new study suggests.
Researchers led by Ruth Gilbert, MD, of the University College London Institute of Child Health, found that the rate of violent death for children younger than 11 years was more than 5 times higher in the United States than in Western Australia or Sweden from 2004 to 2006, and the rate for infant placement in out-of-home care was doubled.
"Our results indicate relative stability or increases in child maltreatment indicators over time, with little evidence of a decline," write Dr. Gilbert and colleagues, noting that modern child protection systems have been in place since the 1970s.
The study was published online in the December 9 issue of the Lancet....

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http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/755695
From Medscape Medical News > Psychiatry

Childhood Maltreatment Reduces Cerebral Gray Matter

Fran Lowry
December 19, 2011 ? Adolescents who have been maltreated as children show reductions in cerebral gray matter, even if they do not demonstrate psychiatric symptoms, according to new research published in the December issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
High-resolution structural magnetic resonance images of the brains of 42 youths aged 12 to 17 years who self-reported child maltreatment on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) showed a significant negative correlation with gray matter volume in various areas, including the prefrontal cortex, striatum, amygdala, sensory association cortices, and cerebellum, the authors, led by Erin E. Edmiston, BA, then of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, now with Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, writes....

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Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2011;165:1069-1077, 1133-1134. Abstract, Editorial