Psychological Traumas and Cardiovascular Disease: A Case-Control Study.

Federica Galli,Chiara Ciacchella,Carlo Lai,Teresa Gregorini,Stefano Carugo

doi:10.3390/healthcare9070875

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences could be important determinants of adult disease. The present study analyzed the association between early traumatic experiences and the onset of cardiovascular disease (CVDs). It was hypothesized that patients with CVD would report a higher number of traumatic experiences during childhood and that this association would be stronger in women. The Traumatic Experiences Checklist (TEC) was fulfilled by 75 patients with a first-time diagnosis of CVD and 84 healthy controls randomly selected from the general population. The two groups were not balanced for age and sex. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) and analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs), with group (clinical vs. control) and gender (male vs. female) as between-subjects factors, and age of participants as covariate, were performed on the number and the impact of the traumatic experiences (emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse) for the three age group in which the trauma was experienced (from 0 to 10, from 11 to 18, from 19 years onwards). The main results showed that participants with CVDs have experienced a higher number of early traumatic experiences compared to the control group, such as emotional neglect (p = 0.023), emotional abuse (0.008 ≤ p ≤ 0.033), and physical abuse (0.001 < p ≤ 0.038). The results also revealed that women with CVDs have experienced more traumatic events compared to the women of the control group (0.001 < p ≤ 0.020). These results seem to highlight an association between traumatic experiences in childhood and CVD in adulthood, particularly in women. Such findings could have relevant implications for clinical practice, suggesting the importance of adopting an integrated approach in the care of the patient with cardiovascular diseases paying attention also to the clinical psychological risk factors.

Highlights

IntroductionAccording to the European cardiovascular disease statistics of 2017 [2], cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are responsible for the death of around 3.9 million people per year, which is roughly 45% of overall deaths in Europe
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the primary cause of death in the world [1]
The amount and the impact of emotional abuse experienced during childhood and adolescence were higher in the patients with the CVDs compared to the control group, further supporting the role of traumatic events in the development of a CVD [24]

Summary

Introduction

According to the European cardiovascular disease statistics of 2017 [2], cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are responsible for the death of around 3.9 million people per year, which is roughly 45% of overall deaths in Europe. These pieces of evidence stressed the importance of primary prevention, identifying the risk factors in the development of CVDs. European guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice [3] underline the importance of several factors, such as smoking, gender, age, familiarity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and some inflammatory biomarkers (e.g., C-reactive protein). The important scientific statement recently published by the American Heart Association [6] did not yet consider the potential role of early traumas as a possible risk factor for CVDs

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Conclusion