Maltreatment during childhood not linked to adult atopic dermatitis

GERMANY: Although childhood maltreatment (CM) has been linked to poor physical and mental health outcomes in adults, adult atopic dermatitis has not been linked to CM, states a study published in The Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

Research shows that CM is related to immune-mediated inflammatory conditions like lupus erythematosus, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease. Adults who experienced childhood maltreatment (CM) have worse physical and mental health. There is little information on the effects of CM on skin conditions, and no study has before explored the connection between CM and atopic dermatitis (AD) in adulthood.

"There is still more research to be done, but it's possible that CM history influences the severity and course of AD rather than really causing it," the researchers wrote.

The study aimed to analyze the prevalence of CM in people with medically confirmed AD and investigate the association between various forms of CM and medically diagnosed AD in a sample of German adults from the general population.

For this purpose, data from 2973 participants (aged 20 to 83; 51.4% female) in the cross-sectional population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) TREND-0 were analyzed. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was used to evaluate emotional, physical, and sexual abuse as well as emotional and physical neglect. Dermatologists made the diagnosis of AD following a systematic clinical examination. Investigating the relationship between CM types and AD was done using a logistic regression analysis that was controlled for age, sex, and educational level.

Key highlights of the research:

• In 20.6% of all AD sufferers, at least one type of moderate or severe CM was noted.
• The most commonly cited CM types were emotional and physical maltreatment.
• Between those with and without AD, there was no difference in the predominance of CM types. There was no connection between CM type and AD.                   

The authors came to the conclusion that CM is not a risk factor for AD in adulthood and offered crucial guidelines for future study.

"Longitudinal studies that take the severity of the disease into account and investigate the potential moderating effect of CM on the severity and normal progression of AD should be carried out," they added.

REFERENCE

Piontek, K., Ittermann, T., Wiesmann, U., Arnold, A., Grabe, H., Völzke, H. and Apfelbacher, C. (2022), Childhood maltreatment is not associated with atopic dermatitis in adults: results from a cross-sectional population-based cohort study. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.18480