Citation

Vela RM. Psychiatr. Clin. North Am. 2014; 37(4): 519-534.

Affiliation

Child and Family Services, North Suffolk Mental Health Association, Massachusetts General Hospital, 301 Broadway, Chelsea, MA 02150, USA. Electronic address: rvela@mgh.harvard.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.psc.2014.08.005

PMID

25455063

Abstract

Child abuse is the most extreme form of stress in childhood and adolescence, and has severe effects on the child's development. Limbic nuclei and circuitry development are especially vulnerable to child abuse and neglect during the first year of life. Development at the neuronal level can be severely disturbed by trauma during early infancy, resulting in maladaptive synaptic formation, impeding experience-expectant brain development. Development of basic emotions may favor the development of negative instead of positive emotions. The new concept of psychoanatomical formulation is introduced. A case vignette is presented and analyzed, based on the disturbed neuroanatomy underlying symptom expression.

Language: en