ArticlePsychological medicine2025
Adverse childhood experiences, mental distress, and autoimmune disease in adult women: findings from two large cohort studies.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Adverse childhood experiences and the risk of non-suicidal self-injury: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence and transient impact of childhood abuse and neglect on health-related quality of life in Mexican patients with early rheumatoid arthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2026Article
- Childhood trauma and systemic lupus erythematosus activity in Tunisian patients: exploring the mediating role of post-traumatic stress disorder.Lupus science & medicine · 2026Article
- Big Data May Have Big Pitfalls: Ensuring Rigor in Rheumatic Disease Epidemiology.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Childhood Maltreatment and Adult Multimorbidity.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Neurodevelopmental comorbidities in juvenile systemic autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2026Review
- PTSD-related symptoms in parents of children with systemic lupus erythematosus: a cross-sectional study.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Sleep quality, duration, and multi-trajectories as predictors of rheumatoid arthritis: evidence from the english longitudinal study of ageing.Arthritis research & therapy · 2026Article
- Adverse Childhood Experiences and Psychological Health in Patients with Myasthenia Gravis: A Study Incorporating an Online Positive Mental Health Learning Program.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAdverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with increased risks of autoimmune diseases. However, data are scarce on the role of specific ACEs as well as the potential mediating role of adverse mental health symptoms in this association.
methodsA cohort study using the nationwide Icelandic Stress-And-Gene-Analysis (SAGA, 22,423 women) cohort and the UK Biobank (UKB, 86,492 women) was conducted. Participants self-reported on five ACEs. Twelve autoimmune diseases were self-reported in SAGA and identified via hospital records in UKB. Poisson regression was used to assess the cross-sectional association between ACEs and autoimmune diseases in both cohorts. Using longitudinal data on self-reported mental health symptoms in the UKB, we used causal mediation analyses to study potential mediation by depressive, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms in the association between ACEs and autoimmune diseases.
resultsThe prevalence of ACEs was 50% in SAGA and 35% in UKB, while the prevalence of autoimmune diseases was 29% (self-reported) and 14% (clinically confirmed), respectively. In both cohorts, ACEs were associated with an increased prevalence ratio (PR) of any studied autoimmune disease in a dose-response manner (PR = 1.10 (95%CI = 1.08-1.12) per ACE), particularly for Sjögrens (PR = 1.34), polymyalgia rheumatica (PR = 1.20), rheumatoid arthritis (PR = 1.14), systemic lupus erythematosus (PR = 1.13), and thyroid disease (PR = 1.11). Sexual abuse and physical and emotional neglect were consistently associated with an elevated prevalence of autoimmune diseases when including all ACEs in the model. Approximately one fourth of the association was mediated through depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
conclusionsThese findings based on two large cohorts indicate a role of ACEs and corresponding mental health distress in autoimmune diseases among adult women.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.