On Tuesday 16th of December Camille Souama will defend her PhD thesis titled ‘Traces of trauma: The lasting imprint of childhood trauma on affective and cardiometabolic health’ in the Aula of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam at 9:45.
In this project, Camille studied the link between childhood trauma and the co-occurrence of depression and cardiometabolic disease in adulthood. Childhood trauma is often defined as the experience of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, or neglect during childhood. It is a well-known risk factor for poor health later in life. Beyond its direct link to individual diseases, childhood trauma may contribute to the development of multiple, co-occurring diseases, a phenomenon known as comorbidity. Specifically, depression and cardiometabolic diseases often appear to be comorbid: people with depression are more likely to develop cardiometabolic diseases, and vice versa. Because this combination greatly increases the burden on individuals and societies, understanding how comorbid depression and cardiometabolic disease develop is crucial.
Camille’s dissertation investigates the connection between childhood trauma, depression, cardiometabolic disease, and their comorbidity. It also explores factors heightening disease risk and uncovers potential biological mechanisms linking childhood trauma to diseases. This project is part of the EarlyCause consortium.
Findings
Camille and colleagues found that childhood trauma is strongly associated not only with depression and cardiometabolic disease individually, but even more so with their comorbidity in adulthood. Those who experienced severe trauma in childhood face especially high risks. Childhood trauma also correlates with persistently elevated cardiometabolic risk throughout adulthood, particularly when depression is present. Moreover, trauma is linked to distinct metabolomic patterns, suggesting biological pathways involving disruptions in amino acid and fatty acid metabolism, as well as an altered stress response, which may explain the increased disease risk. In sum, childhood trauma is a consistent predictor of poor mental and cardiometabolic health later in life, with especially high odds of having both diseases together, likely driven by interrelated mechanisms.
Urgent need for prevention
The results highlight the urgent need for preventive measures against childhood trauma. Social policies and clinical interventions aimed at reducing childhood trauma could lower the future burden of associated diseases. When prevention is not possible, early monitoring and timely intervention for those with trauma histories may help mitigate the development of depression, cardiometabolic disease, and their comorbidity.
Camille Souama has a great interest in interplay of psychology, biology and the environment in shaping (mental) health. She started her PhD in the EarlyCause consortium because of its international character and interdisciplinarity in research. She recently started her postdoctoral position at Leiden University, she combines research with clinical practice.
On Tuesday 16th of December Camille Souama will defend her PhD thesis titled ‘Traces of trauma: The lasting imprint of childhood trauma on affective and cardiometabolic health’ in the Aula of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam at 9:45. Camille’s thesis is supervised by prof. dr. Brenda Penninx, and co-supervised by dr. ir. Femke Lamers, dr. Yuri Milaneschi and prof. dr. Christiaan Vinkers. More information on this dissertation can be found on the website of VU Amsterdam.
