The impact of childhood trauma on depression: does resilience matter? Population-based results from the Study of Health in Pomerania

Abstract

Objective: Data suggests that traumatic experiences at early age contribute to the onset of major depressive disorder (MDD) in later life. This study aims at investigating the influence of dispositional resilience on this relationship.

Methods: Two thousand and forty-six subjects aged 29-89 (SD=13.9) from a community based sample who were free of MDD during the last 12 months prior to data collection were diagnosed for Lifetime diagnosis of MDD by the Munich-Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI) according to DSM-IV criteria. Childhood maltreatment (CM) and resilience were assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the Resilience-Scale (RS-25).

Results: Both CM (OR=1.03, 95% CI [1.02, 1.04], P<.000) and resilience (OR=0.98, 95% CI [0.98, 0.99], P<.000) were associated with MDD later in life. The detrimental effects of low resilience on MDD were not only especially prominent in subjects with a history of CM (OR=3.18, 95% CI [1.84, 5.50], P<.000), but also effective in subjects without CM (OR=2.62, 95% CI [1.41, 4.88], P=.002).

Conclusions: The findings support the clinical assumption that resilient subjects may be partly protected against the detrimental long-term effects of child abuse and neglect.

Keywords: Child abuse; Childhood Trauma Questionnaire; Childhood maltreatment; Depression; Resilience.