Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is the largest and most influential study of the relationship between childhood adversity and long term health. The AVA ACE Study DVD (Published in 2012) contains the most comprehensive description of the ACE Study findings and replications of those findings among a general population sample in Washington State and other similar findings from large nationally representative samples. The DVD features plenary addresses by the ACE Study Co-Investigators, Drs. Vincent J. Felitti and Robert F. Anda along with discussion by Dr. Frank Putnam, an internationally renowned childhood trauma researcher and child psychiatrist. The DVD also includes individual interviews with Drs. Felitti and Anda along with an interview with Dr. David Williamson, the obesity researcher and CDC epidemiologist who, after hearing Dr. Felitti speak in 1990 about his clinical observations of increased rates of child sexual abuse among obese women in his San Diego Kaiser Permanente Preventive Medicine Program, introduced Dr. Felitti to Dr. Anda who then developed the methodology, oversaw the research and supervised the scientific publications from the ACE study. To date, there have been more than 60 scientific publications from the ACE Study. Dr. Putnam describes how the ACE Study "changed the landscape" regarding how researchers and clinicians look at childhood trauma.
Dr. Richard Krugman, the first Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and, since 1990, Dean of the Medical School at the University of Colorado recently reviewed the AVA ACE Study DVD for the Journal of the American Medical Association (August 15, 2012 - Vol. 308, No.7, pages 718-719). Dr. Krugman writes, "This DVD should be viewed by students, residents, all primary care health professionals, and all specialists working with adult patients who are the downstream casualties of adverse childhood experiences. He also suggests, "Watching the entire DVD, which takes around 4 hours and is well worth the effort and time, but to obtain maximum benefit, it may need to be watched in multiple short sessions.” Dr. Krugman, an international authority on child maltreatment, is the longest serving dean of any American medical school, a former Editor-In-Chief of the journal Child Abuse and Neglect and once directed the Kempe Center at the University of Colorado.
