SynthesisThe lancet. Psychiatry2022
Sensitive periods in development and risk for psychiatric disorders and related endpoints: a systematic review of child maltreatment findings.
Synthesis in The lancet. Psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 4 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.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Sensitive periods to social adversity in immune and metabolic development: A systematic review.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Pooled it
- Cultural diversity of traditions for the disposal of exfoliated teeth: Implications for researchers.Community dentistry and oral epidemiology · 2024Pooled it
- Examining associations, moderators and mediators between childhood maltreatment, social functioning, and social cognition in psychotic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- War trauma and psychomotor developmental disorders in children aged 6-12 in Lubumbashi: a comparative study.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Identifying differential interactions of potentially traumatic experiences with genetic risk for posttraumatic stress disorder.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Associations of childhood maltreatment types and timing with oxidative stress in formerly out-of-home placed young adults.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Critical windows: timing of child maltreatment exposure and adult mental health.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Type and developmental timing of childhood adversity predicts psychopathology symptoms in a South African birth cohort.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Timing and duration of early-childhood shared reading and resilience, behavior problems, and reading habits.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Shaping personality functioning: type and timing effects of childhood maltreatment on personality functioning.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Towards a neurobiology of early intervention: the importance of critical periods for preventive psychiatry and youth mental health.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- "An Injurious and Utterly Unfit Environment": A Case Study Comparing Dental Evidence of Childhood Stress in Nineteenth Century Working-Class Peoples From British and Colonial New Zealand Contexts.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- Emotional scars: limbic brain processing alterations in adults with childhood abuse across mental health disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Timing effects in the association between childhood and adolescent bullying victimisation with late adolescence and emerging adulthood depressive symptoms.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Accumulation and sensitive period effects for childhood abuse and financial hardship on depressive symptoms in late adolescence.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2026Article
- Causal inference in psychiatric research: how to critically evaluate and interpret mendelian randomization studies.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Can Psychiatric Genetics Advance Without Incorporating a Life Course Perspective?Biological psychiatry · 2026Review
- The relationship between childhood trauma, personality, and subjective well-being in early and late adolescence: a network analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Early Life Stress Effects on Children's Biology, Behavior, and Health: Evidence, Mediators, Moderators, and Solutions.Annual review of psychology · 2026Review
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
Variation in the mental health of people who have experienced childhood maltreatment is substantial. One hypothesis is that this variation is attributable, in part, to the timing of maltreatment-specifically, whether maltreatment occurs during sensitive periods in development when the brain is maximally sensitive to particular types of environmental input. To determine whether there is scientific consensus around when periods of peak sensitivity occur, we did a systematic review of human observational studies. Although 89 (75%) of the 118 unique cross-sectional or longitudinal cohort studies we identified reported timing effects, no consistent sensitive periods were identified for any of the most studied outcomes. Thus, observational research on childhood maltreatment has yet to converge on a single period (or set of periods) of increased vulnerability. We identified study characteristics that might contribute to these between-study differences and used observations from our Review to suggest a comprehensive set of recommendations for future research.
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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.