Small Study: Childhood Emotional, Sexual Abuse May Scar Women’s Brains In Specific Ways.

The Time (6/6, Szalavitz) “Healthland” blog reports, “Childhood emotional and sexual abuse mark women’s brains in distinct patterns – with emotional abuse affecting regions involved in self-awareness and sexual abuse affecting areas involved in genital sensation,” according to a 51-patient imaging study published June 1 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association. The brain changes were not insignificant. The study’s lead author “says that if a region typically was 5 millimeters thick on average, in abuse survivors it was just 3 to 4 millimeters.”

Related Links:

— “Sexual and Emotional Abuse Scar the Brain in Specific Ways, ” Maia Szalavitz, The Time, June 05, 2013.

Posted in In The News.