ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2022
Adverse childhood experiences and cognitive function in adulthood: examining the roles of depressive symptoms and inflammation in a prospective cohort study.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adverse childhood experiences and cognitive outcomes among older adults in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2026Pooled it
- Association of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Cognitive Health in Older Adults: Rush Memory and Aging Project.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry. Open science, education, and practice · 2026Article
- Inhibitory control-related neural pathways of early adversity to internalizing problems in preadolescence.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Childhood Maltreatment and Cognitive Performance in Bipolar Disorder: The Potential Role of Inflammation.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2026Article
- Sperm sncRNA networks are synchronized by a coordination between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and current stress.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Adverse childhood experiences and cyber aggression among college students: the mediating role of psychological resilience and the moderating role of physical exercise.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Joint effects of leukocyte-albumin ratio and hypertension are associated with multidimensional cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease risk in older adults: evidence from NHANES and a clinical AD validation cohort.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- The impact of early childhood adversity on adult cognitive performance: The mediating roles of childhood cognitive ability and educational attainment.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- The Role of Childhood Adversity and Social Drivers of Health in Subjective Cognitive Decline.Preventing chronic disease · 2025Article
- The mediating role of life course cognitive reserve-enhancing factors in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and dementia among older adults: evidence from a prospective cohort study in the United States.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Impact of Childhood Adversity on Late-Life Cognition in Older Puerto Rican Adults.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Sex Differences in the Associations Among Early Life Adversity, Inflammation, and Cognition.Biomolecules · 2025Review
- Early-life gut microbiome development and its potential long-term impact on health outcomes.Microbiome research reports · 2025Review
- "Rest of the folks are tired and weary": The impact of historical lynchings on biological and cognitive health for older adults racialized as Black.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- Adverse childhood experiences, brain efficiency, and the development of pain symptoms in youth.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Integrating early life stress in neurological disease: advancing preventive neurology.BMJ mental health · 2024Review
- Complex Intersections Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Negative Life Events Impact the Phenome of Major Depression.Psychology research and behavior management · 2024Article
- No Association Found: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Cognitive Impairment in Older Australian Adults.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2024Article
- Longitudinal association of adverse childhood experiences with cognitive function trajectories among middle-aged and older adults: group-based trajectory modeling.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Effects of adverse childhood health experiences on cognitive function in Chinese middle-aged and older adults: mediating role of depression.BMC public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeAdverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with cognitive decline in adulthood. However, the underlying mechanisms implicated remain unclear. This study investigated depressive symptoms and systemic inflammation as potential mediators of the association between ACEs and later cognitive function.
methodsParticipants were adults aged 50 + from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N = 3029; 54.8% female). Measures included self-reported ACEs at wave 3 (2006-2007), C-reactive protein (CRP) and depressive symptoms at wave 4 (2008-2009), and cognitive function at waves 3 and 7 (2014-2015). Mediation analyses examined the direct associations between ACEs and cognitive function at wave 7 and the indirect associations via depressive symptoms and CRP at wave 4. In a first set of analyses, models were adjusted for sociodemographic factors and baseline cognitive function. In a second set of analyses, models were additionally adjusted for BMI and health behaviours (n = 1915).
resultsCumulative ACEs exposure positively predicted depressive symptoms (b = 0.184, s.e. = 0.034, p < .001), which in turn predicted poorer cognitive function at wave 7 (b = - 0.035, s.e. = 0.008, p < .001). ACEs also positively predicted systemic inflammation as measured by CRP (b = 0.031, s.e. = 0.01, p = 0.0016). However, CRP did not mediate the association between ACEs and later cognitive function (b = - 0.0002, 95% CI: - 0.002, 0.002).
conclusionThese findings suggest that ACEs may be related to cognitive decline partly via depressive symptoms and corroborate prior research linking ACEs with systemic inflammation in adulthood.
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