Repeating a school year, experiencing parental abuse or engaging in armed combat have far-reaching effects on the mind and body that may extend to a person's last months. These traumatic experiences can worsen the pain, depression and loneliness at the end of life, according to a study led by UC San Francisco and the University of Michigan. "We found that early-life trauma in particular, especially physical abuse by parents, was strongly related to end-of-life pain, loneliness and depressive symptoms ," said senior author Ashwin Kotwal, MD, of the UCSF Division of Geriatrics and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
"Traumatic events in childhood may have reverberating effects throughout the lifespan. They may play a role in social and emotional isolation, poor health habits and an increased risk of subsequent trauma," he said. These findings emerged from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which followed approximately 6,500 Americans over the age of 50, who died from 2006 to 2020.
It appears on Oct. 1 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society . The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about their experiences with 11 traumatic events , as well as their psychosocial well-being.
They were interviewed every other year until death, which occurred at an average age of 78. A final "exit interview" with a family member or friend with power of attorney provided information about symptoms in their last year. Trauma "gets under the skin," according to first aut.