ArticlePsychological medicine2026
Anhedonia underlies the association between childhood unpredictability and adult PTSD symptoms: Evidence from three independent longitudinal cohorts.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Temporal reorganization of maternal care during early life stress in mice.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
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10 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundUnpredictability in the child's environment has recently emerged as a significant and unique form of early life adversity (ELA). Cross-sectional studies have linked childhood unpredictability with increased post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in adults; however, no prospective studies have tested the link between childhood unpredictability and PTSD risk in later life, nor what processes, such as increased anhedonia symptoms, might mediate such risk. Here, we leveraged three distinct prospective, longitudinal cohorts to test the hypothesis that unpredictability during childhood contributes to adult PTSD via worsening anhedonia symptoms.
methodsParticipants were male service members (
resultsChildhood unpredictability was associated with increased adult PTSD symptoms in all three cohorts (
conclusionsUnpredictability during childhood may confer risk for adult PTSD, and this increased risk may occur via alterations in anhedonia symptoms. Efforts to increase predictability during childhood could enhance resilience to later traumatic events.
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