Why Do Children Wish to Stay with Their Abusers? A Translational Study

Abused children often choose, counterintuitively, to stay with their abusing parents even during court proceedings offering placement outside the home. To study the pathophysiology of this phenomenon, investigators used an animal model in which infant rats are introduced to and bond with a peppermint odor (an established substitute for maternal odor) that was paired with an electric shock. As adults, these animals were compared with nonconditioned rodents on paradigms used in testing the effects of antidepressant drugs (forced swim and social behavior tests).

In adulthood, conditioned animals exhibited depression-like behaviors, aberrant amygdala function, and elevated corticosterone. All of these phenomena were rescued after animals were re…