The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Part 1

Add comment November 12th, 2009

The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study is a collaborative effort of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Kaiser Permente in San Diego and the Centers for Disease control.  It originated with observations of Dr. Vincent J. Felitti who was conducting a weight loss program in the 1980’s. 

The patients having the most success were actually dropping out of the program.  In follow-up interviews of over 200 patients, he made a number of observations:

·         Child sexual abuse was very common among the obese

·         For most of them, their obesity began after their abuse

·         Many patients saw a relationship between their abuse and their obesity

·         Obesity was not the problem it was the solution to other problems more psychological in nature

This led to the largest study ever done (17,000+ people) that explores the long term health and social effects of adverse childhood experiences.  For the sake of the study, the following experiences were considered adverse:

·         Recurrent and Severe Psychological abuse (11%)

·         Recurrent Physical abuse (28%)

·         Contact Sexual abuse (21%)

·         Violence against the respondent’s mother (13%)

·         Living with substance abuse (27%)

·         Living with mentally ill or suicidal parents (19%)

·         Living with individuals who had ever been

·         incarcerated (3%)

·         Both biological parents not present (23%)

In brief, the findings are these:

·         ACEs are surprisingly common

·         ACEs still have profound effect 50 years later

·         ACEs tend to appear in groups (where there is one there are usually others)

·         Early experiences are transformed
into organic disease, social malfunction and
mental illness

·          ACEs are the main determinant of the health
and social well-being of the nation.

In our next blog, we will discuss the more specific findings of the study.