Adverse Childhood Events, Personality Disorders, and Multimorbidity in Older Adults: Exploring the Connections.

OBJECTIVES

We investigated the association between adverse childhood events, personality disorders and multimorbidity in older adults.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional analysis in a population of older adults including 40 people with a personality disorder and 75 healthy controls. The Childhood Traumatic Events Scale was used to assess adverse childhood events. Multimorbidity was defined as the presence of 2 or more predetermined chronic somatic and psychiatric disorders. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between adverse childhood events, personality disorders and multimorbidity.

RESULTS

No significant association was found between adverse childhood events and multimorbidity (OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.96-1.09). The presence of a personality disorder was significantly associated with multimorbidity (OR = 12.95, 95% CI = 4.28-39.14).

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, we did not find an association between adverse childhood events and multimorbidity in older adults. Multimorbidity was more prevalent in subjects with personality disorders compared to healthy controls.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The findings suggest that personality disorders are associated with both mental and physical health challenges, underscoring the importance of integrated care approaches to address both aspects in clinical practice.