Loneliness is experienced by many older people and associated with depressive symptoms. Childhood adverse events have been found to be a predictor of loneliness in young adults. We would like to investigate whether childhood traumatic events are associated with loneliness in older people with depression. We also explored what kinds of traumatic events are more related to loneliness and whether family support will modify the association of interest.

Older adults (≧60 years) with history of major depressive disorder were enrolled from outpatient clinics. Participants cannot be diagnosed as dementia. They received a series of questionnaires, including cumulative illness rating scales, Hamilton depressive and anxiety rating scales (HDRS and HARS), Geriatric depression scale(GDS), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire(CTQ), Chinese version of the family adaptation, partnership, growth, affection and resolve(APGAR), and Mini-mental status examination.

Fifty-four participants were enrolled. The average age was 68.8 years and female predominance (83.7%) with mean educational year of 10.4. Univariate analysis was performed first using LS score as dependent variable, and only those variables with p value less than 0.2 were put into multiple linear regression. In the multiple regression model, age, gender, education, GDS, HDAS were entered as covariates and CTQ was treated as independent variable. The results showed that CTQ score was positively associated with LS (ß=0.565, p<0.001). The family support, presented as APGAR score, was not modified the results. In the explore analysis, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect also showed positively associated with loneliness in the participants; however, physical abuse and sexual abuse did not have the same findings.

Childhood adverse events may be positively associated with loneliness in older people with depressive disorder after adjusting for confounders. We should pay more attention on the childhood traumatic events in these patients. In addition, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect rather than physical abuse and sexual abuse seemed to have more impact on the loneliness in these participants. However, some limitations, such as small sample size, recall bias of childhood events, difficulty of recall physical and sexual abuse, and other latent confounders, should be considered before making a final conclusion.