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Childhood maltreatment leaves scars that often reach far beyond early life. Decades of research show that people who were maltreated as children are more likely to experience psychosocial difficulties, mental health problems, and physical illnesses as adults (see the previous Mental Elf blog post here in the context of childhood sexual abuse) (Goodwin & Stein, 2004). These problems often occur together; a phenomenon called multimorbidity, meaning two or more conditions occur at the same time (Wan et al., 2022).
In the context of maltreatment, multimorbidity often includes depression, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Recent studies suggest that maltreatment may not only raise the risk for each of these…