MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest children abused before age 5 may be affected physiologically.
The researchers at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and the University of Rochester Mt. Hope Family Center in Rochester, N.Y., linked such physiological change, in turn, to increased risk of depression.
The study, published in Child Development, found high levels of depression occurred more frequently among children abused in the first five years of their lives than among maltreated children who weren't abused early in life or children who weren't maltreated at all.
More importantly, only children abused before age 5 and depressed had an atypical flattening of their production of the hormone that regulates the body's reaction to stress -- cortisol. The finding means the body's primary system for adapting to stress had become compromised among these children, the researchers say.
"The results of this study have significant implications for children in the child welfare population and underscore the importance of providing early preventive interventions to children who have been abused," study leader Dante Cicchetti of the University of Minnesota said in a statement.
Cicchetti and colleagues studied more than 500 low-income children ages 7-13. About half of the children had been abused and/or neglected.
