Abstract
Early life trauma has a negative impact on the developing brain, and this can lead to a wide range of mental illnesses later in life. Childhood trauma is associated with increased psychotic symptoms and negative emotions such as depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms in adulthood. Childhood trauma has also been shown to influence sub-clinical ‘schizotypy’ characteristics of psychosis in the general population. As it has been reported that mental health outcomes after early life trauma exposure are influenced by gender, the current study aimed to investigate the gender differences in the relationship between childhood trauma, schizotypy and negative emotions. Sixty-one non-clinical participants (33 men and 28 women) aged between 18 and 45 completed self-report questionnaires to measure early life trauma, schizotypy and negative emotions. Despite similar levels of childhood trauma in men and women, early life trauma in women was associated with increased schizotypy personality characteristics (Cognitive Disorganisation) and increased depression, anxiety and stress later in life, but no correlations were observed in men. Our findings suggest that the sociocultural and biological processes affected by early life adversities may differ between the genders. Women may be more vulnerable to the influence of childhood trauma, which may be associated with increased psychopathology later in life.
Highlights
Research shows that schizophrenia symptoms and the course of illness differ between men and women; for instance, men have a higher prevalence of negative symptoms, lower functioning and an earlier symptom onset of three-to-five years compared to women [1]
As depression and anxiety are expressed at higher rates in females than males in the general population, and because women with schizophrenia present more with mood symptoms rather than positive and negative symptoms, we investigated the association between childhood trauma and depression, anxiety and stress in both genders, which has not been explored alongside schizotypy
Trauma positively correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress in women but not in men, consistent with previous observations of a relationship between higher CTQ scores and depressive symptoms in women during early psychosis [8,9]
Summary
Research shows that schizophrenia symptoms and the course of illness differ between men and women; for instance, men have a higher prevalence of negative symptoms, lower functioning and an earlier symptom onset of three-to-five years compared to women [1]. Women often present with more depressive and affective symptoms [1] These differences in symptom onset, course and presentation suggest men and women may experience different responses to schizophrenia risk factors, which involve different sociocultural (gender) and biological processes [2]. Research suggests that stress contributes to HPA dysfunction in women more than men [6], which may explain gender differences in outcomes following exposure to childhood trauma. Childhood trauma and/or adversity has been associated with poorer physical health (such as cardiovascular disease and epilepsy) [7] and negative symptoms [8] in men, and increased depression in women [7–9]
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