Abused or neglected children are four times more likely to develop serious mental illness
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A study by the University of Birmingham has shown that children who have experienced child abuse or neglect are four times more likely to develop serious mental illness such as psychoses, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Researchers studied GP records dating between 1995 and 2018 of 217,758 patients aged under 18 who had experienced, or were suspected to have experienced, childhood maltreatment or related concerns, and then compared them to the records of 423,410 patients who had not.
The study, published today in The Lancet Psychiatry, found those patients who were maltreated were more than twice as likely to develop serious mental ill health such as psychoses, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, or require a prescription to treat mental ill health, compared to those who have no recorded experience of maltreatment. The researchers also found maltreated children were more than twice as likely to develop some form of mental illness, such as depression or anxiety.
Childhood maltrea...
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