Exploring the potential relationship between adverse childhood experiences, self-rejection and autoimmune diseases
Research study
As a mental health professional trained in both top-down (focusing on cognitions and emotions) and bottom-up (focusing on the body, the felt sense, and instinctive responses) therapeutic approaches, and a Hashimoto's patient myself, I have long pondered the potential relationship between self-rejection and autoimmune pathology.
Acknowledging the functional unity of our biological and psychological development, and recognizing that the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are anatomically and functionally interconnected (Dube et al., 2009), naturally led me to inquire: what is the impact of self-rejection at a somatic level? Could profound self-rejection, manifested either through self-criticism, self-shaming, self-hatred, or self-disgust, potentially trigger a mirroring response at an organic, bodily level, prompting the immune system to attack the body's own cells and tissues?
This inquiry formed the basis of my Master's research study, entitled Adverse Childhood Experiences, Self-Rejection, and Autoimmune Diseases. The thesis has been presented at the Bucharest University in 2023 and I welcome readers from the academic community who may be interested in this subject to connect and further explore options for advancing research in this direction.
For other readers, it is important to emphasize that this study is intended solely for academic and informational purposes and should not be construed as scientifically validated research, as it has not undergone a peer review process.
I acknowledge the sensitivity of health-related discussions in the online space and how even the research question itself may be used by certain individuals to either blame themselves or others for their health condition. I encourage you to reflect on how you might be using this against yourself or others. While the hypotheses of the current research may suggest a possible association between adverse childhood experiences, self-rejection and autoimmune diseases, it is essential to understand that this does not imply causation. Autoimmune diseases are multifactorial in nature, and attributing them solely to psychological factors (or any other factors) is not only inaccurate from a scientific perspective, but also oversimplified and reductionistic, potentially leading to misconceptions and unnecessary concerns.
I emphasize the importance of seeking professional medical advice and relying on scientifically validated sources of information. Furthermore, I encourage you to engage critically with this writing and consult qualified healthcare professionals for personalized advice and treatment options tailored to your specific circumstances.
Carmen
Clarifying key concepts
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
This umbrella term designates a wide range of events—often repeated and chronic—that occur in a child's home or social environment. These events cause harm and distress while disrupting the child's physical or psychological health and development (Kalmakis & Chandler, 2013).
Over the past three decades, the range of experiences typically recognized as ACEs has expanded to currently include events such as physical, sexual and emotional abuse, physical and emotional neglect, parental separation or divorce, exposure to substance abuse, violence, mental illness of a caregiver, incarceration of an adult in the home environment (Felitti et al., 1998), exposure to community violence and discrimination, bullying (Finkelhor et al, 2015), being placed in foster care (Petruccelli et al., 2019)
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) are recognized by a growing number of authors as a psychosocial, medical, and public policy issue with serious individual and collective consequences (De Bellis & Zisk, 2014)
The annual cost associated with ACE exceeds 1.3 trillion USD in North America and Europe alone (Bellis et al., 2019). A 10% decrease in the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences could generate annual savings of over $100 billion (Bellis et al., 2019)
Studies over the past two decades show that early adversity disrupts the physiological response to stress and that exposure to prolonged stress in childhood adversely affects the nervous, immune and endocrine systems, as well as the level of inflammation in adulthood (Danese et al., 2009).
Early adverse experiences are not only associated with psychological disorders but also with a range of chronic diseases, cardiovascular conditions, cancers, and autoimmune conditions, although research results on the autoimmune diseases over the past 15 years have been rather contradictory.
Studies suggest that for almost all psychosocial, behavioral or somatic disorders studied in relation to adverse childhood experiences, a dose-response relationship has been observed: the more severe the exposure to adverse childhood experiences, the higher the risk of developing a psychosocial/behavioural disorder or physical illness (Baumeister et al., 2016; Petruccelli et al., 2019)
Autoimmune diseases (ADs)
A wide, heterogeneous spectrum of 81 inflammatory disorders in which the immune system attacks the body's own cells and tissues (Hayter & Cook, 2012; Dube et al., 2009).
Research suggests that up to 10% of the world's population suffers from at least one autoimmune disease (Cooper et al., 2009) and that the number of those affected is increasing dramatically in many parts of the world, most likely due to changes in diet, increasing exposure to stress, xenobiotics, pollution, infections, and lifestyle changes(Miller, 2023).
Autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases in particular represent a complex and incompletely understood subject at this moment, due to a combination of factors including:
the lack of consensus regarding the definition of cases and disease criteria (Hayter & Cook, 2012; Miller, 2023);
the heterogeneity of the symptoms and the prevalence of these diseases (more than half of them are rare diseases, with incidence <1/10000 (Hayter & Cook, 2012));
the geographical, ethnic, racial variability of these diseases and the lack of centralised national and international databases;
methodologies for testing autoantibodies and other immune tests vary in accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. (Miller, 2023).
Research suggests that genetic, environmental factors, and immune system functioning could play a significant role in the onset of autoimmune diseases, yet their etiology and mechanisms are not fully understood yet (Miller, 2023; Long et al., 2008, Farhadi & Mahmoudi, 2019).
Abnormal inflammatory response is closely associated with many chronic diseases and in particular with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, gout and type I diabetes (Duan et al., 2019).
The persistent activation of inflammatory pathways specific to chronic inflammation has been proposed as a possible mechanism through which adverse childhood experiences contribute to the development of physical diseases, including autoimmune diseases in adulthood (Macarenco et al., 2022 apud Danese et al., 2007, 2011).
Self-rejection
The self-rejection variable, which in this study is presumed to mediate the link between adverse childhood experiences and autoimmune diseases, refers to a rejectful attitude towards oneself, which may take a myriad of forms, from self-pressure, self-criticism, self-blaming, self-shaming to a derogatory, depreciative, and, in extreme cases even hateful and harming attitude toward oneself. Operationalizing this concept and measuring it for the purpose of this study turned to be a significant challenge, due to the lack of comprehensive research and psychometric tools to adequately and accurately capture the various facets of this attitude.
From a trauma therapy perspective, self-rejection in all its forms is a survival strategy developed early on to protect caregivers’ image and ultimately the attachment relationship. Perceiving oneself as good and lovable in a environment with unavailable, neglectful or abusive parents (that the child is 100% dependent) equates to losing hope that core needs will ever be met, which would be too much for a child to bear. This is even more so true in hostile environments where children’s healthy protest and primary anger yield no positive change in the caregivers’ response and instead lead to more danger (e.g., parental abuse).
At early ages, the only way in which a child can make sense of the caregivers’ / environment’s failure to attune to their core needs is to start relating to themselves as bad and actively reject whatever needs and aspects of themselves their environment cannot meet. From a child’s perspective, this strategy of disconnection from the self through self-rejection, albeit painful and alienating, is protective, because it increases the chances of getting their core needs met. Growing up, however, these survival strategies and all the associated distortions of identity (being bad, inadequate, wrong, unworthy, etc.) get carried into adulthood and continue to run their course, despite having outlived their survival function.
Self-rejection, self-criticism, self-blaming, self-shaming and self-hatred become ways in which individuals diminish and attack themselves to unconsciously protect the image of their caregivers and the love relationship. It is this very attitude that encapsulates the essence of the self-rejection variable in the current study and what we suspect to be potentially mediating the relationship between early adversity and autoimmune diseases.
The research question
Acknowledging the functional unity of our biological and psychological development, and recognizing that the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are anatomically and functionally interconnected (Dube et al., 2009), what impact does a relationship characterized predominantly by self-rejection and self-hatred have at a somatic level?
Could significant self-rejection on a psychological level, whether through self-criticism, self-shaming or self-hatred, potentially trigger a mirroring response at an organic, bodily level, prompting the immune system to attack the body's own cells and tissues?
What research suggests about ACEs and ADs
The nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are anatomically and functionally interconnected (Dube et al., 2009).
In the presence of stressors, be them infections, toxins, or psychological stressors, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is activated to mobilize the necessary resources to cope with stress by secreting cortisol.
Acute stress can initially trigger inflammation as a natural response of the immune system (playing a role in eliminating pathogens, promoting healing). However, when stress becomes chronic, the body continues to release proinflammatory cytokines, which leads to chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is suspected to contribute to the pathogenesis of several medical conditions, including autoimmune diseases (Nathan & Ding, 2010).
Adults with a history of maltreatment/abuse in the first decade of life exhibit significant increases in inflammatory markers in adulthood, independent of other risk factors in early childhood, as well as stress factors or unhealthy behaviors in adulthood (Danese et al., 2007).
A meta-analysis of 118 research studies concluded that adverse childhood experiences are not significantly associated with autoimmune diseases in adulthood, but small effect sizes have been observed for certain clusters of adverse experiences, such as emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and exposure to violence (Macarenco et al., 2022).
What research suggests about ACEs and self-rejection
Personality development involves achieving two fundamental outcomes: the development of the ability to have healthy and constructive relationships with others, and the development of a sense of autonomy together with a positive personal identity (Thompson & Zuroff, 2004).
In the presence of persistent early adversity, these developmental tasks are significantly compromised, fact which has been recently recognized by the World Health Organization through the inclusion of the Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) in the 11th version of the International Classification of Disease (ICD). Among the diagnosis criteria, one may find:
persistent difficulties in regulating affect,
persistent difficulties in sustaining interpersonal relationships, and
the person's belief that they are less than they are, that they are defeated or worthless, accompanied by feelings of shame, guilt or failure (WHO, 2019).
Social interactions underlie internal self-evaluations (Castilho et al., 2015, apud Gilbert, 2000). Our inner negative self-evaluations can have similar psychophysiological effects as external signals and thus can, under some conditions, activate response systems that evolve to cope with external threats, such as submissive and defensive behaviours and emotions (Castilho et al., 2015 apud. Gilbert, 1989 and LeDoux, 1998)
Limitations of the existing research
To the best of our knowledge, until 2023 no study has explored the relationship between adverse childhood experiences, self-rejection and autoimmune diseases
One single research paper identified in the academic literature authored by Macarenco at al (2021) partially tackles the topic of the present work by studying the expression of anger (among others) as a potential moderator of the relationship between early adverse experiences and autoimmune diseases.
The authors do not explicitly link anger and self-rejection, but a certain dimension of anger (specifically, anger directed towards oneself) is relevant for testing the hypotheses of the current study, as acted in anger is often what the self-rejection is about.
Unfortunately, the assessment instrument used by Macarenco et al. is limited in its ability to accurately capture the self-rejection / acted in anger because the questions are formulated in a way that’s explicitly aiming to evaluate how often the person feels anger but suppresses it. If we consider that anger and other primary emotions are very often dissociated in people with a history of early trauma, it comes at no surprise that the results of the aforementioned study suggested that anger is not a relevant mediator of the relationship between adversity and autoimmune diseases (Macarenco et al., 2021).
Thus, I suggest that, instead of measuring the acted-in anger (which due to dissociation may not be possible to grasp), new research should attempt to measure the level of self rejection (which tends to be more easily identifiable despite the dissociation of the primary emotions). By proposing self-rejection as a possible mediator of the relationship between early adversity and autoimmune diseases, the current study has the potential to open new research and/or treatment directions.
The research study: adverse childhood experiences, self-rejection and autoimmune diseases
First hypothesis (H1): There is a significant association between exposure to early adverse experiences and the presence of autoimmune diseases.
Second hypothesis (H2): Self-rejection might mediate the relationship between early adverse experiences and autoimmune diseases
To test the research hypotheses, a quantitative, correlational, cross-sectional study was designed and conducted in Feb - March 2023. The study measured the level of three main variables:
(1) the independent variable - represented by the adverse childhood experiences
(2) the dependent variable - represented by the presence of the autoimmune pathology
(3) the presumed mediating variable - represented by the level of self-rejection
Research hypotheses & design
Utilized tools
To measure the independent variable - i.e. the adverse childhood experiences, we utilized the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire - Short Form (CTQ-SF) (Bernstein et al., 2003).
To measure the dependent variable - i.e. the presence or the absence of autoimmune pathology we utilized self-report (participants could declare themselves clinically healthy or indicate how many and which autoimmune diseasese they’ve been diagnosed with)
To measure the presumed moderating variable, i.e. the self-rejection, we utilized two subscales of the Forms of Self-Criticism, Self-Attack, and Self-Reassurance Scale (FSCRS; Gilbert et al., 2004), namely:
Self-Hatred Subscale - measures the most toxic and pathogenic form of self-criticism, characterized by self-punishment and feelings of disgust, aversion, hatred, and contempt towards oneself, accompanied by a desire to attack, harm, and persecute oneself.
Inadequate Self Subscale - measures the level of self-criticism and focuses on feelings of inadequacy and inferiority due to personal failures, as well as aspects that need to be changed in oneself from the respondent's perspective.
Sampling & data collection
For the pupose of this research, we utilized a pooled probability sampling strategy, as follows:
Targeted sampling was used to identify respondents diagnosed with autoimmune diseases by actively promoting the invitation to participate in the research study in online communities dedicated to autoimmune diseases (Autoimmune Support Group, Living with Hashimoto's diseases, Boli autoimune Romania)
Simple random probability sampling was used to identify clinically healthy participants
The data was collected in the February - March 2023 timeframe
Participants were provided with information regarding data privacy and personal data protection rules in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) and were asked to electronically sign an informed consent form prior to filling out the research questionnaire.
Descriptive data analysis
A total of N=338 respondents over 18 filled the questionnaire in full. Of these, 96% (Nf=325) were females and 4%(Nm=13) were males. Respondents’ average age is 33.5, with a 6.9 standard deviation.
36% (i.e. 122 persons) of the total responders have been diagnosed with at least one autoimmune disease
The most common diagnosis in the study population was Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroiditis (78%), followed by Psoriasis (9%), Multiple Sclerosis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Sjogren's Syndrome, Graves' Disease, Celiac Disease, Vitiligo, Fibromyalgia, Lupus Erythromatosus, Addison's Disease, Chron's Disease, Type I Diabetes and Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia.
In terms of exposure to adversity, the highest scores were registered for those experiences included in the emotional neglect (M=14.26) and emotional abuse (M=13.9) clusters, followed by physical abuse, physical neglect and sexual abuse.
At a glance
Number of participants: 338
Average age: 33.5
Gender distribution: 96% females & 4% males
Top 5 most reported autoimmune diseases
Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroiditis (78%)
Psoriasis (9%)
Multiple Sclerosis
Ankylosing Spondylitis
Sjogren's Syndrome
Early adversity exposure by frequency
Emotional neglect
Emotional abuse
Physical abuse
Physical neglect
Sexual abuse
Research results
Testing the first hypothesis (H1): exposure to early adverse experiences is significantly associated with autoimmune diseases
To explore the potential association between adverse childhood experiences and the autoimmune diseases and test the 1st hypothesis of the present study (H1) we used a logistic regression analysis.
The results indicate that the five types of adverse experiences assessed by the CTQ-SF, i.e. physical abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, sexual abuse do not significantly associate with autoimmune diseases (R2N=.02, chi-square(5)=6.06, p=.30).
Testing the second hypothesis (H2): self-rejection mediates the relationship between early adverse experiences and autoimmune diseases.
To test the second hypothesis we used the mediation through logistic regression. For the purpose of this study, we measured the level of self-rejection in two ways:
In the first scenario, we measured self-rejection using exclusively the scores recorded on the Hated Self subscale of the FSCRS, which assesses the most toxic and pathogenic form of self-criticism, characterized by self-blame and feelings of disgust, loathing, hatred and contempt for the self, accompanied by the desire to attack, hurt and persecute oneself (Castilho et al, 2015). The results of the analysis indicated that adverse childhood experiences have a significant effect on this way of relating to oneself (b = 0.10 , p < .001), but that this form of self-rejection (b = 0.01 , p = .329) has no effect on the development of autoimmune diseases.
For further testing, in the second scenario we measured self-rejection as the sum of the scores recorded on the Hated Self and Inadequate Self subscales of the FSCRS, the latter measuring the level of self-criticism. Analysis of the results also suggested that adverse childhood experiences have a significant effect on self-rejection measured as self-criticism and self-hatred (b = 0.27, p < .001), but that this type of self-rejection (b = 0.00, p = .111) has no effect on the dependent variable (i.e. the presence of the autoimmune disease)
In conclusion, self-rejection measured either as self-hatred (b = 0.00, p = .333) or as self-criticism and self-hatred (b = 0.00, p = .118) does not mediate the relationship between early adverse experiences and the development of autoimmune diseases.
Results interpretation
From the analysis of the logistic regression results, it emerges that adverse childhood experiences measured through CTQ-SF (namely physical abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, and sexual abuse) do not have a statistically significant effect on autoimmune diseases. We therefore rejected the first hypothesis (H1) of the study.
This result is partially consistent with some previous studies investigating the relationship between adversity and autoimmune diseases, but unlike other pieces of research, it does not highlight any size-effects that have previously been observed for certain clusters of adverse experiences, such as emotional abuse or emotional neglect.
The analysis of the mediation through logistic regression suggests that adverse childhood experiences are significantly associated with self-rejection, feelings of disgust, aversion, hatred, and contempt towards oneself, desire to self-attack, harm, and persecute, as well as a wider range of feelings of inadequacy and self-criticism.
However, self-rejection (whether defined as disgust, aversion, hatred, and contempt towards oneself (b=0.01, p=.329), or defined in a broader sense, including disgust, aversion, hatred, contempt towards oneself, and self-criticism (b=0.00, p=.111)) does not appear to have an effect on the autoimmune diseases. We therefore rejected the second hypothesis (H2) of the study.
Practical implications
The study does not confirm the hypotheses regarding the presumed relationship between adversity, self-rejection, and autoimmune diseases; however, the results must be interpreted with caution, considering the numerous research limitations. The study confirms the significant impact of adversity on self-rejection, and its results can be used:
As an additional argument in favor of developing psychoeducation, social and psychological support programs for children and young families to reduce (1) mental suffering and (2) medical care costs associated with self-rejection and self-harm.
To support parents, educators and teachers in educating themselves to be able to accurately identify self-rejection attitudes in children and encourage them to addressing those in a systemic context through psychoeducation, counseling, and (family) psychotherapy.
Limitations and future directions
The results of the current research should be interpreted with caution. While it is plausible that self-rejection at the psychological level may indeed not contribute to the development of autoimmune diseases, it is also important to acknowledge that this assertion may not hold true due to the presence of various limitations of the current study. For example:
The study utilizes self-report questionnaires only, which, although widely used in research, have the disadvantage of not measuring objectively the studied variables, for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the respondents' difficulties in recalling relevant experiences from their life history, reduced capacity for self-reflection, or social desirability biases. Adapting to traumatic experiences often involves engaging coping strategies and adaptive mechanisms, including disconnecting from onself and what was felt too difficult to tolerate back then (Schimmenti & Caretti, 2016). Thus, it is possible that dissociation/minimization does not allow for recall and/or recognition of the severity of early adversity, thus leading to an underestimation of the independent variable.
The exploration of self-rejection remains an underdeveloped area in research, lacking comprehensive investigation. The existing psychometric instruments fail to fully encapsulate the nuanced and multifaceted nature of self-rejection. The few existing scales available (including the one utilized for this study) are rather simplistic, requiring the integration of supplementary qualitative assessment methods. Evaluating the relationship with oneself through self-report questionnaires may result in highly inaccurate results, and likely in the underreporting and underestimation of the levels of self-rejection, due to social desirability biases among others.
Furthermore, the lack of widespread education and understanding of the concept of self-rejection can inadvertently contribute to misunderstandings and challenges in accurately recognizing self-rejection attitudes and behaviors. This may lead to situations where respondents may have evaluated themselves as rather gentle and self-compassionate, when in fact they might be highly critical and rejectful of themselves. As an example, often times people mistake the behaviour of consciously engaging in self-care rituals or various relational behaviours promoted in the media or self-help books as evidence of self-compassion / self-love, ignoring that what’s driving them in engaging in those behaviours may sometimes actually be self-rejection (e.g evaluating themselves negatively in comparison with others, pressuring themselves to do what they believe they have to do to be in a certain way, etc.). Empirical clinical observations suggest that a significant number of highly educated individuals are unaware of the myriad ways in which they reject themselves through extremely common (and sometimes even socially glorified) behaviours or attitudes such as perfectionism, pressuring and burning oneself out, setting unrealistic standards for oneself, comparing oneself with others, self-shaming, etc. Unfortunately, none of these facets of self-rejection are measured through the FSCRS questionnaire utilized in the current study.
For the purpose of this study, the respondents were clustered into two groups (a group with autoimmune diseases and a clinically healthy population group) based on a simple screening question. Although the study included a control question in which participants were asked to write their diagnosis as it appears in their medical records, we can neither exclude the possibility of errors, nor the possibility that respondents who declared themselves healthy may in fact have undiagnosed autoimmune diseases (especially considering that many autoimmune disease patients are asymptomatic especially in the early stages of the diseases)
The fact that the current study does not control for the autoimmune disease severity is another limitation that may reinforce or weaken the real effects of exposure to early adverse experiences on the development of autoimmune disease.
The research fails to account for the timing of exposure to adverse experiences, a crucial factor given that some developmental stages are more sensitive than others. The CTQ-SF questionnaire assesses adversity exposure anytime from birth to the age of 18.
Due to an unfortunate error in the administration of the questionnaire, the current study does not control for the respondents’ involvement in a psychotherapeutic process (which could significantly contribute to lower levels of self-rejection and thus weaken the presumed mediating role of this variable). For further clarification, it should be noted that two of the questions included in the research questionnaire investigated whether respondents were involved in a long-term psychotherapeutic process. Unfortunately, these two questions were not displayed to the respondents that filled in the research questionnaire within the very first days from its publishing date. The fact that at the time of identifying and correcting this error a significant number of respondents had already completed the questionnaire without answering these questions made it impossible to control for this control variable in the statistical analysis. Considering that 51% of the 152 individuals queried reported receiving or having received psychotherapeutic support, it is reasonable to assume that the failure to control for this variable may significantly bias the research findings. This oversight could weaken the potential mediating effect of self-rejection on the relationship between adversity and autoimmune disease.
Last but not least, individual protective factors to adversity and individual differences in adversity response mechanisms may also influence the research results.
Considering the aforementioned limitations of the current study, future research should aim to:
Further explore the interplay between the psychological, biological, genetic and environmental factors in the development of autoimmune pathologies through longitudinal, multidisciplinary studies, collaboratively designed with mental health professionals, dietetitians, geneticists, and medical doctors specialized in immunology and endocrynology.
Employ qualitative evaluation tools (e.g. structured interviews) in addition to self-report questionnaires to further enhance the accuracy of the measured variables
Further explore and control for potential confounding variables, including the involvement of the respondents in long-term, depth-oriented psychotherapeutic processes that are likely to contribute to the decrease of self-rejection.
Conclusions
The results of the current research neither support the hypothesis that there is a significant association between early adverse experiences and autoimmune diseases, nor the hypothesis that self-rejection might mediate the potential relationship between adversity and autoimmune diseases. However, given the limitations of the research study and the fact that, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the relationship between adversity, self-rejection and autoimmune pathologies, additional research would be needed to increase the reliability of the conclusions.
Considering the prevalence of autoimmune conditions and their palliative nature, it is essential to coordinate available resources at a cross-disciplinary level to continue the research efforts. Understanding the interactions between psycho-individual, genetic, environmental and epigenetic variables in the onset and development of autoimmune diseases is critical for improving both the treatment and the prevention of autoimmune diseases.
A personal note
Although not included in the current research paper due to ethical considerations, it is noteworthy to mention the results of the recently published PhD thesis by Macarenco M.(2022) that investigated, among others, the effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in adults with Hashimoto Thyroiditis. The results of Macarenco’s study suggest that EMDR is effective in reducing anti-TPO (anti-thyroid peroxidase) antibodies in individuals diagnosed with Hashimoto Thyroiditis, with effects persisting at 3-month follow-up. A decline in anti-TPO levels may indicate an amelioration in the autoimmune condition or a reduction in the immune system's assault on the thyroid gland. The author emphasizes that “treating the ten most disturbing memories prior to the illness debut, including stressful or traumatic memories from childhood or adolescence, represents a better psychological intervention for decreasing symptoms associated with Hashimoto Tyroiditis than placebo and treatment as usual (Macarenco M., PhD Thesis summary, 2022). While this insight substantially contributes to the knowledge base on validated treatments for Hashimoto Thyroiditis, the unavailability of the complete PhD thesis of Macarenco in public journals and databases at the time of this research study's writing rendered its inclusion unethical.
The fact that a trauma-specific psychotherapeutic intervention such as EMDR has been suggested to contribute to the decrease of the anti-TPO levels in a high prevalence autoimmune condition such as the Hashimoto Tyroiditis reinforces the hypothesis that psychological factors (and potentially self-rejection too) may be an underestimated factor in the autoimmune diseases’ research. This underscores the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration to continue exploring the interactions between psycho-individual, genetic, environmental and epigenetic variables in the onset and development of autoimmune, and also to further investigate the potential impact of other types of trauma-specific psychotherapeutic modalities in the treatment of auto-immune diseases.
Disclaimer
The content presented hereinabove is solely for academic and informational purposes. It should not be construed as scientifically validated research, as the research thesis upon which it is based, while adhering to academic research standards, has not undergone a peer-review process.
I acknowledge the sensitivity of health-related discussions and how even the research question itself may be used by certain individuals to either blame themselves or others for their health condition. I encourage you to reflect on how you might be using any of the information presented above against yourself (or others). While the hypotheses of the current research suggest a possible association between adverse childhood experiences, self-rejection, and autoimmune diseases, it is essential to understand that, in the absence of rigorous scientific research to prove it, we cannot talk about causation. Autoimmune diseases are complex and multifactorial in nature, and attributing them solely to psychological factors is not only inconsistent with the current body of research but also oversimplified and reductionistic.
I would like to emphasize the importance of seeking professional medical advice and scientifically validated sources of information. I encourage readers to engage with this writing critically and to consult qualified healthcare professionals for personalized advice and treatment options tailored to their specific circumstances.
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