Childhood maltreatment is associated with attachment insecurities, dissociation and alexithymia in bipolar disorder.

Child maltreatment is a public health issue that is a well-established risk factor for many psychological conditions, including bipolar disorder. The current study is one of the first to investigate associations among child maltreatment, dissociative symptomatology, alexithymia, anxiety, depression, and attachment insecurities. 40 patients with bipolar disorder-I and 40 healthy subjects matched for age, gender, and education participated in the study.

Trauma appraisals, emotion regulation difficulties, and self-compassion predict posttraumatic stress symptoms following childhood abuse.

Experiencing traumatic events and abuse is unfortunately common in general, non-clinical samples. Recent research indicates that the ways in which individuals interpret traumatic experiences, as well as the ways that they manage challenging emotions in general, may statistically predict post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms to a greater extent than does trauma itself. Negative trauma appraisals, generalized emotion regulation (ER) difficulties, and low levels of self-compassion have each been shown to influence the connection between trauma exposure and subsequent PTSD symptoms.