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TURNING GOLD INTO LEAD, THE ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES (ACE) STUDY

Presenters: Vincent Felitti

Abstract Category: Medical

Instruction Level: Beginner

Presentation: Click Here

Description:     

The 17,000 person ACE Study deals with  the relationship of adverse childhood experiences to adult health, well-being, and social function.

Abstract:

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is a long term, in-depth analysis of over 17,000 adult San Diego members of Kaiser Permanente, matching their current health status against 8 categories of adverse childhood experiences that occurred on average a half-century earlier. 

We found that:

•           adverse childhood experiences are surprisingly common although typically concealed and unrecognized
 

•           they still have a profound effect 50 years later, although now transformed  from psychosocial experience into organic disease and mental illness
 

•           adverse childhood experiences are the main determinant of the health and social well-being of the nation. 
 

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study thus has direct and important relevance to the practice of medicine and to the field of social planning.  Its findings indicate that much of what is commonly recognized as abnormal in adult medicine and in social behavior is the result of what is not recognized in childhood. 

The ACE Study challenges as needlessly superficial the current conceptions of depression and addiction, showing them to have a very strong dose-response relationship to antecedent life experiences.

Further information about the ACE Study is available at www.ACEStudy.org