Sticks and stones may break my bones but words relate to adult physiology? Child abuse experience and women's sympathetic nervous system response while self-reporting trauma

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Sticks and stones may break my bones but words relate to adult physiology? Child abuse experience and women's sympathetic nervous system response while self-reporting trauma
Citation	Bernstein RE, Measelle JR, Laurent HK, Musser ED, Ablow JC. J. Aggression Maltreat. Trauma 2013; 22(10): 1117-1136.
Copyright	(Copyright © 2013, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)
DOI	10.1080/10926771.2013.850138
PMID	unavailable
Abstract	Child abuse predicts a wide range of long-lasting deleterious outcomes, including disruptions in the biological systems central to emotion arousal and regulation. However, little is known about the specific ways in which child abuse affects adulthood sympathetic reactivity and recovery. This study investigated the association between child abuse experience and adult skin conductance level and habituation in 85 at-risk women as they completed a self-report trauma questionnaire. Childhood emotional abuse was independently associated with blunted skin conductance habituation over the course of survey completion after controlling for other abuse subtypes and current trauma symptoms. These results suggest that women emotionally abused as children experience prolonged emotional arousal and poor physiological regulation of emotion in response to reminders of traumatic experiences.