Child abuse: underlying mechanisms

Exposure to traumatic stress during childhood, in the form of abuse or neglect, is related to an increased vulnerability resulting in the development of several pathologies, this relation has been confi rmed by epidemiological studies; however, the neural mechanisms underlying such abnormalities are still unknown. Most of the research done has focused on the effects in the infant, and only recently it has begun to focus on the neurobiological changes in the abusive parents. In this article, I review some of the studies using animal models of early adverse trauma and present some of the data on neural changes. Further studies of brain abnormalities in abusive parents are still needed.

La exposición durante la infancia a estrés traumático, en la forma de abuso o negligencia, está asociada con una mayor vulnerabilidad, la cual resulta en el desarrollo de diversas psicopatologías, relación que ha sido confirmada una y otra vez en estudios epidemiológicos; sin embargo, aún se desconocen los mecanismos neurales que subyacen dichas alteracionesy solo recientemente se han empezado a estudiar los cambios neurobiológicos subyacentes en padres y madres maltratadores. En esta revisión se resumen investigaciones en que se ha abordado esta temática y se presentan algunos de los modelos animales usados para su estudio.