Kurzfassung

In a collaboration with the Department of Toxicology (Director: Prof. Dr. B. Kaina) we explore if early and severe childhood traumatization in the primary caregiving system ("complex traumatization") is as toxic as physical or chemical toxins. The Department of Toxicology has established a method to make DNA-double-strand breaks visible and countable; DNA-double-strand breaks are markers of genetic damage, e.g. taking place after radiation therapy in cancer patients.
In the pilot project we...In a collaboration with the Department of Toxicology (Director: Prof. Dr. B. Kaina) we explore if early and severe childhood traumatization in the primary caregiving system ("complex traumatization") is as toxic as physical or chemical toxins. The Department of Toxicology has established a method to make DNA-double-strand breaks visible and countable; DNA-double-strand breaks are markers of genetic damage, e.g. taking place after radiation therapy in cancer patients.
In the pilot project we compare 20 low traumatized and 20 high traumatized patients at onset of treatment in the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine to 20 controls without psychic illness and without severe childhood traumatization; the controls are paralleled in regard to age, gender and educational level to the high traumatized patients. The level of childhood traumatization is established with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ); in order to explore if secure attachment or the ability to process affective arousal to psychic represented, differentiated feeling states, the Adult Attachment Picture System (AAP) and the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) are applied.
The data collection started in 2013; first analyses of the biological data demonstrate a high load of DNA-double-strand breaks in the high traumatized patients, compared to the low traumatized patients as well as to the healthy, non-traumatized controls. The psychological data under evaluation; the results of the project will be presented at the end of 2014.» weiterlesen» einklappen