A study published in the journal Pediatrics reveals that extreme stress could damage children's brains, it is not about the stress that a child can suffer due to an excess of school and extracurricular activities, or because of witnessing family quarrels, but of extreme stress, such as living an attack, sexual, physical or emotional abuse, etc.
According to scientists at Stanford University (USA), extreme stress can cause physical scars in the brain, precisely in the area where memory and emotions reside, in children with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the Hippocampus had shrunk. The study was carried out on 15 children who suffered from PTSD due to some abuse, some important loss or having witnessed violence, and suggest that the resentful hippocampus could reduce the ability to withstand stress and increase the child's anxiety. Higher levels of blood cortisol, the stress hormone, were also discovered, this hormone, as demonstrated in animal studies, destroys the hippocampus cells, so scientists find it possible that so much injury to the hippocampus would prolong the symptoms of stress and prevent the therapeutic treatment of children.
The study is in its infancy, there are still many aspects to investigate, such as the consequences of extreme long-term stress, why some children carry the situation better than others, etc., the goal is to develop therapies for more personalized and effective children To help them overcome this disorder, it is also known that children who suffer from PTSD, as adults, are at greater risk of depression and anxiety.
