It has been established that nature and nurture should not be taken as enemies or total opposites, but as two intertwined realities that function together to make up the human experience. Nature was designed for nurture.
Many recent and notable studies have documented the effects that early childhood experience can have on both the physical and chemical makeup of the brain. In particular, childhood abuse and/or neglect can permanently alter an individual’s physiology. These physiological changes may lead to a greater likelihood of the person suffering from depression or anxiety later in life.
Groundbreaking results from a major study of depressed women in the US have shown that women who were abused as children have abnormally elevated hormonal responses to stress compared to women with no history of abuse. It suggests that childhood abuse is associated with persistent hyperactivity of the hormonal system associated with the stress response and this may cause greater vulnerability to psychiatric disorders in adulthood.
The study, headed by Dr. Charles Nemeroff at Emory University, looked at women diagnosed with clinical depression who had been abused...