In recent years, researchers have begun investigating the association between childhood trauma (CT) and bipolar disorder (BD), suggesting a relationship between CT and clinical severity. New research has started to explore the impact of CT on cognitive and functional domains but has not inspected these factors to the same extent as clinical factors (i.e., symptoms, number of episodes, age at onset). The current meta-analysis examined 12 primary research articles with 3,137 participants across different age ranges, education levels, and gender breakdowns. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked for reliability by a second reviewer at a reliability rate of 96.63%. The 12 studies of interest cumulatively explored CT across the domains of 1). symptomatology, 2). functioning, and 3). cognition in patients with BD. After running random effect analyses across all three domains, this meta-analysis found significant, but largely modest relationships between all outcomes of interest and CT. Childhood trauma had small effects on most clinical domains (Hedge's g = .15-.19). CT was revealed to have a borderline medium effect size on depression symptoms (Hedge's g = .39) and functioning (Hedge's g = .41), and a small effect size on cognition (Hedge's g = .28). Age, education, and study quality did not moderate any of the relationships reported above, as indicated by homogeneity of most mean effects in our study. Future research should investigate the relationship between CT and all domains of interest to reach more reliable conclusions.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Bipolar disorder","Childhood trauma","Meta-analysis"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 23971