Adverse childhood experiences study

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is a long term, in-depth, epidemiologic analysis of over 17,000 middle-aged, middle-class Americans, matching their current health status against 10 categories of adverse childhood experiences that occurred on average a half-century earlier. This ongoing collaborative effort by Kaiser Permanente and the CDC found that: •Adverse childhood experiences are surprisingly common although typically concealed and unrecognized because of time, shame, secrecy, and social taboo. •They still exert a profound effect 50 years later, although now transformed from life experience into organic disease and mental illness. •Adverse childhood experiences are the main determinant of the health and social well-being of the nation, as well as of adult medical care costs. •Integrating these findings into primary care medical practice appears to produce a significant reduction in medical care costs, and is surprisingly resisted.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study thus has direct and important relevance to the practice of medicine and psychiatry, and to the field of social planning.

Conference

English

Vincent Felitti

Felitti, V. (2013, September). Adverse childhood experiences study. Plenary presented at the 18th EMDR International Association Conference, Austin, TX