Stroke risks rises with childhood emotional neglect

A childhood marked by abuse or physical deprivation can leave lifelong marks on a person’s health, raising the risk of heart disease, psychiatric disorders and chronic poverty. But a new study finds that the far more common and subtle experience of emotional neglect in childhood seems to confer another health risk at the other end of life: a higher likelihood of stroke.

Compared with adults who believed themselves loved and emotionally nurtured as children, those who reported a “moderate” absence of parental warmth and care were almost three times more likely to have suffered strokes that left indelible imprints on their brains, says the study. The link between childhood emotional neglect and stroke dwarfed the power of physical abuse or deprivation to predict strokes later in life.

The new research, published Wednesday in the journal Neurology, did not rely on strokes to have been recognized or diagnosed during a participant’s lifetime. Instead, researchers at Rush University Medical Center’s Aging and Memory Project recruited Chicago-area participants 55 or older who would allow their brains to be examined after death.

By the end of 2011, 257 of the study’s 1,057 participants had died, and 192 brain autopsies had been conducted. Participants who reported childhood neglect or adversity were no more likely to die early than were those who reported they had felt loved and understood as children.

Roughly 46% of those whose brains were examined showed signs of having had at least one stroke (a little more than half of those had suffered two or more strokes, researchers found). To the researchers’ surprise, participants who reported high levels of parental intimidation, parental violence, family turmoil or financial need were no more likely than those who did not experience any of those childhood hardships to have suffered a stroke.

But among those who reported even “moderate” levels of emotional neglect — the feeling of having been ignored, misunderstood or unloved — the likelihood of having suffered a stroke shot up. And that hike remained robust even after researchers took account of physical markers that would put a person at higher risk of stroke, including diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. With or without those warning signs, the neglected were still more likely to have had a stroke.

Participants who reported childhood neglect or adversity were no more likely to die early than were those who reported they had felt loved and understood as children.

The authors of the study suggest that children who grew up without the certainty they were cherished may be more likely to engage in “maladaptive behaviors” as they age — to drink or eat too much, smoke cigarettes — and to suffer bouts of anxiety or depression. But because childhood emotional neglect starts earlier, endures longer and often goes unrecognized, many may take the consequences of this corrosive scourge to the grave.