Outcomes of childhood abuse

In the early 1990’s Martin Teicher and a group of his research colleagues carried out intense research into how childhood abuse at a young age affects the brain of the developing child. The types of abuse associated with this research include physical, mental and emotional abuse, caused by maltreatment. The result of this abuse inflicted on a young, developing brain appears to cause a varying degree of psychological damage to the child, dependent on many factors.

This damage stems from the child’s critical stage of growth when the brain is receptive to influential and environmental stimuli in the process of gaining knowledge and experiences. If the stress levels are raised way above the norm at this fragile stage of development, then irreversible damage is inevitable to the neural area of the limbic system. The limbic system includes the amygdala, which is responsible for emotions ...