1. Children exposed to prenatal or postnatal stressors increase the risk of developing long-lasting pathophysiologic alterations linked to poor health and to disease. 2. High levels of stress-induced maternal cortisol secretion could cross the placental barrier and enter the fetus to cause low birth weight and increase the risk of disease in later life, including obesity, cardiovascular conditions (e.g., hypertension), and behavioral disorders (e.g., depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). 3. Early exposure to psychosocial stressors (e.g., parental, sexual, or emotional abuse, low socioeconomic status [SES] or poverty) are linked to the development of dysregulated HPA and ANS leading to a chronic proinflammatory state that increases the risk of disease. 4. Early life stressors may impair brain systems that govern executive functions involved in attention, self-awareness, impulse control behavior that regulate emotions, and adaptive coping behavior.
A single mother brings her 14 year old son into a clinic at the recommendation of his teacher. The son displays classic signs of add, adhd, and presents with difficulty self regulating; displaying early signs of depression and isolation. Which of the following exposures could have played a part in his brain development?
A.) His mother worked at Mc. Donalds for the term of her pregnancy and regularly ate food the restaurant had to decrease cost of living.
B.) His mother had an issue breast feeding and so the child was only formula fed as in infant.
C.) The mother had to live with her family in the first five years of his life, with 12 people in a two-bedroom house, in a neighborhood with high crime rates.
D.) His grandmother who he lived with was a heavy smoker and exposed him once a week to second hand smoke.