Sensitive Periods in Development and Risk for Psychiatric Disorders and Related Endpoints: a Systematic Review of Child Maltreatment Findings

Overview

Journal Lancet Psychiatry

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2022 Nov 20

PMID 36403600

Authors

Jonathan D Schaefer

Theresa W Cheng

Erin C Dunn

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Variation in the mental health of people who have experienced childhood maltreatment is substantial. One hypothesis is that this variation is attributable, in part, to the timing of maltreatment-specifically, whether maltreatment occurs during sensitive periods in development when the brain is maximally sensitive to particular types of environmental input. To determine whether there is scientific consensus around when periods of peak sensitivity occur, we did a systematic review of human observational studies. Although 89 (75%) of the 118 unique cross-sectional or longitudinal cohort studies we identified reported timing effects, no consistent sensitive periods were identified for any of the most studied outcomes. Thus, observational research on childhood maltreatment has yet to converge on a single period (or set of periods) of increased vulnerability. We identified study characteristics that might contribute to these between-study differences and used observations from our Review to suggest a comprehensive set of recommendations for future research.

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