One headline this week: “Neglect, Abuse Seen in 90,000 Infants” which starts: “About 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have been neglected or abused, according to the first national study of the problem in that age group.”

Another headline this week: “Childhood Mental Health Problems Blight Adult Working Life” whose first line repeats the mantra: “Mental health problems in childhood blight adult working life, suggests research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.”

Putting them together? We can look to the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, based on information from more than 17,000 members of the Kaiser Permanente HMO in California. Here’s part from the CDC summary:

“As the number of Adverse Childhood Experiences increase, the risk for the following health problems increases in a strong and graded fashion:

-alcoholism and alcohol abuse
-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
-depression
-fetal death
-health-related quality of life
-illicit drug use
-ischemic heart disease (IHD)
-liver disease
-risk for intimate partner violence
-multiple sexual partners
-sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
-smoking
-suicide attempts
-unintended pregnancies