CONSEQUENCES OF CHRONIC INTRA-FAMILY ABUSE IN CHILDHOOD: DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUM

Abstract

Repeated and early attachment trauma has a huge impact on children’s development, producing a wide range of psychopathology, which is included as a new diagnosis called complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) in the 11th revision to the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). The aim of this study is to provide a review of the posttraumatic symptomatology caused by exposure to complex traumatic events and to synthesize the existing empirical evidence on CPTSD and developmental trauma disorder (DTD). The results of the reviewed studies confirm the presence of extensive and heterogeneous symptoms, as well as serious affective, cognitive, and behavioral selfregulation alterations, which correspond to complex PTSD or DTD. Therefore, the current data support the validity of these diagnostic proposals.

Keywords

• complex trauma
• developmental trauma disorder
• abuse