Psychotherapy sessions with caregivers may help prevent serious disease later in life for young children who have experienced significant trauma, a new UC San Francisco study found.
Past research has shown that young children benefit psychologically for up to nine years after dyadic, child-parent treatment for trauma, but this is the first time a biological benefit from this treatment has been found.
UCSF researchers looked at the effects of dyadic therapy on a biomarker they dubbed “age acceleration” that tells how fast or slow a person’s body is aging compared to their chronological age.
This “epigenetic clock” runs faster for people who have experienced early childhood trauma; that in turn puts them at greater risk for heart disease, cancer, obesity and asthma.