ReviewBMC medicine2017
Biological embedding of childhood adversity: from physiological mechanisms to clinical implications.
Review in BMC medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 325 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
325 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Violence Exposure and Cognitive Outcomes Among Children in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs): A Systematic Review.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2026Pooled it
- Global landscape, research hotspots, and evolutionary trends in childhood adversity and chronic disease research: a bibliometric analysis based on three databases.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Health effects associated with exposure of children to physical violence, psychological violence and neglect: a Burden of Proof study.Nature human behaviour · 2025Pooled it
- Measuring adversity in the ABCD® Study: systematic review and recommendations for best practices.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Adverse childhood events and mental health problems in cancer survivors: a systematic review.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Pooled it
- Adverse Life Experiences and Brain Function: A Meta-Analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled it
- Probing the genomic landscape of human sexuality: a critical systematic review of the literature.Frontiers in genetics · 2023Pooled it
- Household Food Insecurity, Growth and Development of Preschool Children: Evidence From Rural Pakistan.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Trial
- Randomised feasibility study evaluating eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy for functional neurological disorder (MODIFI).Journal of neurology · 2025Trial
- Family-based care buffers the stress sensitizing effect of early deprivation on executive functioning difficulties in adolescence.Child development · 2023Trial
- Long-term impact of childhood exposure to interparental physical violence on cancer risk in adulthood: a prospective cohort study.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Associations Among Natural Disaster Exposure, Childhood Adversity, and Cognitive Functioning in Older Americans in the Health and Retirement Study.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2026Article
- Developmental Care in the Early Years in Pediatric Intensive Care Patients as a Strategy to Mitigate Pediatric Post-Intensive-Care Syndrome: A Narrative Review.Journal of intensive care medicine · 2026Review
- Accelerated aging in schizophrenia: integrating epigenetic clocks, telomere dynamics, senescence-associated secretory phenotype, and oxidative stress.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Review
- Article
- Multi-omics characterization of chronic social defeat stress recall-activated nuclei in Arc-GFP mice.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Sex-specific mechanisms of childhood trauma-related HPA axis dysregulation: Insights across four regulatory probes.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Early Adversity Imprints Multisystem Biological Aging: A Longitudinal Study of Adversity Dimensions and Aging Phenotypes Across Adolescence.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Neural correlates of resilience to trauma during adolescence: A multi-modal study.JCPP advances · 2026Article
265 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAdverse psychosocial exposures in early life, namely experiences such as child maltreatment, caregiver stress or depression, and domestic or community violence, have been associated in epidemiological studies with increased lifetime risk of adverse outcomes, including diabetes, heart disease, cancers, and psychiatric illnesses. Additional work has shed light on the potential molecular mechanisms by which early adversity becomes "biologically embedded" in altered physiology across body systems. This review surveys evidence on such mechanisms and calls on researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and other practitioners to act upon evidence. OBSERVATIONS: Childhood psychosocial adversity has wide-ranging effects on neural, endocrine, immune, and metabolic physiology. Molecular mechanisms broadly implicate disruption of central neural networks, neuroendocrine stress dysregulation, and chronic inflammation, among other changes. Physiological disruption predisposes individuals to common diseases across the life course.
conclusionsReviewed evidence has important implications for clinical practice, biomedical research, and work across other sectors relevant to public health and child wellbeing. Warranted changes include increased clinical screening for exposures among children and adults, scale-up of effective interventions, policy advocacy, and ongoing research to develop new evidence-based response strategies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.