With the right therapy, biological aging in traumatised children can be slowed

Child-Parent Psychotherapy may slow down biological aging in children who have experienced trauma, recent research from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has shown. 

 

Child-Parent Psychotherapy may slow down biological aging in children who have experienced trauma, recent research from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has shown. 

 

While past research has shown that young children benefit psychologically for up to nine years after dyadic, child-parent treatment for trauma, the new research is the first to demonstrate a biological benefit from this treatment.

 

Specifically researchers found that interventions when children were under five years of age were especially critical, as this is when a child’s brain undergoes its most critical period of development, having the most significant effect on a child’s future mental and physical health.

To reach their conclusions the researchers looked at the effects of dyadic therapy on a biomarker they dubbed “age acceleration” that tells how fast or slow a person’s body is aging compared to their chronological age.

 

This “epigenetic clock” runs faster for people who have experienced early childhood trauma which in turn puts them at greater risk for heart disease, cancer, obesity and asthma.

 

The study compared two groups of children from San Francisco’s Bay Area children between the ages of two and six years with traumatic experiences. Before treatment, both groups had similar rates of biological age acceleration.

 

One group received up to 20 weekly sessions of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP),  and the other group did not receive CPP.

 

The 45 children who participated in the therapy had less age acceleration than the 110 who didn’t. Though the difference was not great, it still may be significant, as even small biological changes early on can lead to big differences in health outcomes over the life course, senior author Professor Nicole Bush.

 

“These findings bolster the case for making sure families who experience trauma and stress can access child-parent therapies, in order to improve mental and physical health,” Professor Bush continued. 

 

More than 80 per cent of the children in the treatment group and two-thirds of the comparison group were Latinx, which is important because families of colour and low-income families are more frequently exposed to trauma than white families with higher incomes, yet they are typically not included in medical research.

 

“Our approach is to heal the relationship and the trauma of both child and adult in sessions together. Relationships are the key to health, starting in early childhood,” fellow researcher Dr Alicia Lierberman added. 

 

“We’re talking about very acute trauma in young children, things like loss of a parent, maltreatment and community violence,” she continued. “The children in the intervention had an average of five traumatic events under six years of age, when the literature shows that if you have four or more before age 18, you are more likely to develop one of the 10 leading causes of death as an adult.”

 

Their parents, meanwhile, had an average of 13 traumatic events, which Dr Lieberman said puts them at greater risk of difficulty with regulating their own emotions and actions in response to the challenging behaviour of their children.

 

In Child-Parent Psychotherapy, therapists incorporate toys to help children process emotions and thoughts related to their traumatic experiences, and to help parents understand how their children’s behaviour is linked to their experiences. They also facilitate the parent-child bond by guiding the duo through positive social interactions.

 

“When both parent and child have experienced trauma, it exacerbates the effects of the trauma,” Dr Lieberman said. “Our approach is to heal the relationship and the trauma of both child and adult in sessions together. Relationships are the key to health, starting in early childhood.”

 

“Parents can sometimes feel helpless in the face of their children’s exposure to trauma,” co-first author Dr Allie Sullivan said. 

 

“We hope these results reassure parents that they have the capacity and strength to protect their children from adversity.”

 

The researchers hope their work will demonstrate the social, ethical and economic value of therapy-based alternatives to medication when it comes to treating family trauma.

 

“Something as fundamental as putting families together and naming the trauma, and creating a setting of emotional safety and healing, can lead to biological repair that may benefit mental and physical health across the life course,” Professor Bush said. “We hope policymakers and practitioners take notice.”

 

Access the findings in full here.