CHILDHOOD EMOTIONAL MALTREATMENT INCREASES THE “WEAR-AND- TEAR” OF PHYSIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS, ESPECIALLY NEUROENDOCRINE CHANGES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

Abstract Background A body of experimental data and clinical investigations suggests that childhood adversity permanently affects the plasticity of multiple brain circuits, including the processing of environmental stimuli, the regulation of autonomic nervous, cardiovascular and endocrine responses. Aim To quantify the “wear and tear” on physiological systems in schizophrenia, we introduced the concept of allostatic load (AL) index,which covers multiple physiological indicators and is a useful framework for predicting stress-related dysbiosis. Adverse childhood experiences, especially sexual and emotional abuse, could lead to elevated levels of AL index in patients with schizophrenia. We aimed to determine whether childhood trauma affects physiological indicators of schizophrenia in adulthood, particularly indicators of stress. Improved understanding of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and stress- related pathophysiology could strengthen multidisciplinary interventions and further comprehensive the healthcare system for people with schizophrenia. Method Using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the allostatic load (AL) index. First-episode drug-naï ve schizophrenia patients (n=56) and healthy controls (n=53) were evaluated. Pearson correlation analysis was employed to explore the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences and the AL index in schizophrenia patients. Results Schizophrenia patients exhibited significantly higher scores for childhood trauma compared to healthy controls. Emotional abuse was found to correlate positively with the neuroendocrine-related AL index in schizophrenia patients (r=0.471, p<0.001). Multivariate linear regression further confirmed that emotional abuse was a significant predictor for the neuroendocrine-related AL index, accounting for 20.6% of its variance. Conclusion The findings of this study suggest that emotional abuse during childhood is associated with an elevated neuroendocrine-related AL index in adulthood among patients with schizophrenia. This offers new insights for clinical assessment and intervention in schizophrenia.