Childhood Experiences - Adult Illness
What Childhood Experiences Teach Us
about Adult Chronic Diseases
Karen Matthews, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Epidemiology, Psychology, and Clinical and Translational Science, and a leading expert on stress and disease, was recently featured in an article in the Bloomberg Business News focusing on how adversity in childhood can increase risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Dr. Matthews's study, Project Pressure, followed 212 children, aged 14- to 16-years-old, for three years to see whether living in areas of low socioeconomic status was linked to more sensitivity to stress and early signs of heart disease. Dr. Matthews also presented the results of this study as an invited plenary speaker at the American Psychological Association's 118th Annual Convention that took place August 12-15, 2010 in San Diego, CA.