European Psychiatry - Volume 33 - March 2016

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24th European Congress of Psychiatry
Plenary
PL01
Adversities in childhood and their
impact on mental health across the
life course
S. Pollak
University of Wisconsin,
Psychology-Pediatrics-Psychiatry-Neuroscience, Madison, USA
How is the brain shaped and refined by children’s early social and
emotional experiences? In this colloquium, Iwill focus on the devel-
opment of children who have endured environments marked by
toxic levels of stress early in their development. These children are
known to be at increased risk for a variety of health, academic,
and social problems. Some of these problems appear immediately,
but others may not manifest themselves until much later in devel-
opment. I will highlight ways in which we can address central
issues in human development by studying the quality and tim-
ing of children’s social experiences. To do so, I will describe recent
research involving children who have experienced child abuse and
neglect, children raised in poverty, children raised in institutional
settings, children who have endured traumatic life experiences,
and typically developing children. Through these studies, I will
highlight new insights about the developmental processes under-
lying children’s sensitivity to their social environments as a way
to understand the emergence of both adaptive and maladaptive
human emotional behavior. Defining and specifying ways in which
the environment creates long-term effects on brain and behavior
holds tremendous promise for improving the health andwell-being
of children.
Disclosure of interest The author has not supplied his declaration
of competing interest.
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