- Patients with MDD had higher CTQ total scores and all five subscale scores than healthy controls.
- Emotional abuse remained associated with higher baseline depression and anxiety; physical abuse with greater insomnia; LOCF emotional neglect-insomnia finding was exploratory.
- No robust associations between childhood trauma dimensions and peripheral inflammation, WCST executive performance, or primary longitudinal symptom trajectories.
J Affect Disord. 2026 Oct 17:122645. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2026.122645. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Childhood trauma is associated with major depressive disorder (MDD), but whether specific trauma dimensions show distinct clinical, biological, cognitive, and longitudinal correlates remains unclear. This study examined associations of childhood trauma dimensions with symptom domains, peripheral inflammation, executive cognitive performance, and short-term symptom change in patients with MDD.
METHODS: This case-control and follow-up study included 73 patients with MDD and 60 healthy controls. Childhood trauma was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Baseline clinical symptoms, peripheral inflammatory markers, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) performance were evaluated. PHQ-9, GAD-7, and ISI scores were assessed during 12 weeks of follow-up. Cross-sectional associations were examined using Spearman correlations with false discovery rate (FDR) correction. Linear mixed-effects models using observed follow-up data were used as the primary longitudinal analyses. Baseline-adjusted 12-week LOCF endpoint models were conducted as sensitivity analyses, with FDR correction applied across the 15 CTQ-outcome tests.
RESULTS: Patients with MDD had higher CTQ total and all five subscale scores than healthy controls. Within the MDD group, emotional abuse remained associated with higher PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores after FDR correction, whereas physical abuse remained associated with higher ISI scores. No robust associations were identified between CTQ dimensions and peripheral inflammatory markers or WCST measures after multiple-comparison correction. The primary mixed-effects analyses showed no significant baseline-adjusted CTQ main effects or visit-by-CTQ interactions. In the LOCF sensitivity analyses, emotional neglect remained associated with a lower 12-week ISI score after FDR correction (q = 0.035), whereas the physical-neglect-PHQ-9 association did not remain significant (q = 0.320).
CONCLUSION: Several childhood trauma dimensions were associated with baseline self-reported symptom severity, but the observed pattern does not establish symptom-specific effects. No robust associations were identified with peripheral inflammation, WCST performance, or longitudinal symptom trajectories. The emotional-neglect-ISI association observed in the LOCF sensitivity analysis was not clearly replicated in the primary mixed-effects analysis and should be considered exploratory.
PMID:42892399 | DOI:10.1016/j.jad.2026.122645
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