Abstract
Background: Oxytocin (OT) is known to play a role in stress regulation. The association between childhood maltreatment history and neuropeptide OT concentration is inconsistent due to the varying degrees of severity of childhood maltreatment, among other contributing factors. Less severe forms of childhood maltreatment history might enhance OT concentrations as a response to coping with social stress within the family. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between less severe forms of childhood maltreatment history and OT concentrations among healthy adults.Method: Eighty adults (49 women and 31 men) with 18- to 48-month-old children were recruited using a snowball sample in Tokyo, Japan. Urine samples were collected for OT measurement. Less severe (low and moderate) childhood maltreatment history, including physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse, was assessed using the self-report questionnaire, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.Results: Less severe physical abuse was significantly associated with higher OT concentration after adjusting for age (p = 0.014). Also, less severe forms of physical abuse were independently significantly associated with higher OT concentration after controlling for other types of childhood maltreatment (p = 0.027). A positive dose-response association between the number of less severe childhood maltreatment types and OT concentration was observed (p = 0.031).Conclusion: A history of less severe forms of childhood physical abuse was associated with higher OT concentration in healthy adults. Poly-victimization of several types of less severe childhood maltreatment was also associated with higher OT concentrations. Less severe forms of childhood maltreatment might enhance OT concentrations in order to cope with social stress.
Highlights
Materials and MethodsOxytocin is a neuropeptide that plays an important role in social bonding and in the regulation of stress and anxiety (Carter et al, 1992; Kormos and Gaszner, 2013; Peters et al, 2014)
Strategies to deal with such stress for less severe forms of child maltreatment might be different, because of the role OT plays in the “tend-andbefriend” behavior of dealing with stress (Taylor et al, 2000)
Seltzer et al (2014) reported that urinary OT concentrations after social stress exposure among maltreated girls were higher than the controls (Seltzer et al, 2014), suggesting that OT concentrations in maltreated girls exposed to social stress were enhanced to deal with this stress through more frequent social behaviors
Summary
Materials and MethodsOxytocin is a neuropeptide that plays an important role in social bonding and in the regulation of stress and anxiety (Carter et al, 1992; Kormos and Gaszner, 2013; Peters et al, 2014). Physically healthy adult men who experienced adverse life experiences from early childhood up to 13 years of age showed lower plasma OT concentrations (Opacka-Juffry and Mohiyeddini, 2012). These findings can be interpreted as evidence that lower OT concentration might be associated with the child withdrawing from the stressor, that is, the caregiver who severely maltreats the offspring, because lower OT concentration can lead to a decrease in social behavior. Less severe forms of childhood maltreatment history might enhance OT concentrations as a response to coping with social stress within the family. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between less severe forms of childhood maltreatment history and OT concentrations among healthy adults
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