Ways to Stop Child Abuse

Aug. 15, 2005 -- -- Patty Enciso remembers with horror and shame how she used to rage out of control every time her baby cried.

"There were times that I would out of nowhere, I would just come and hit her," the Pomona, Calif., woman said. "I would actually slap her in the mouth and pull her hair and call her names."

Enciso is not alone.

Some four children die every day in the United States because of abuse and neglect, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And every year, local child protective service agencies substantiate close to one million reports of abuse and neglect.

Enciso is proof that abuse can be stopped. After years of therapy and involvement in a parent support group, she has learned how to deal with the violent impulses. But her actions may have put her own children at risk for repeating the cycle. Child abuse experts estimate that one in three people abused as children grow up to perpetuate violence on the next generation.

Dr. Joan Kaufman, a researcher at Yale University School of Medicine, believes learned behavior is only one small factor in the cycle of violence. She is using brain imaging technology to study how child abuse actually changes the brain.

New research suggests that when a child is abused, the part of the brain called the amygdala becomes hypersensitive to stress, sending alarms to the pre-frontal cortex, which acts like a guard, ready to stop violent impulses. But constant abuse lowers that guard, making it much harder for a person to stay in control.

"Little things that might make another person not think twice can really push another person, a person with a history of abuse, over the edge," Kaufman said.

The science also shows that those brain changes can be overcome and even reversed with therapy, medication and the support of positive relationships.

Enciso took the first step toward dealing with her abusive behavior after one painful incident with her daughter, Crystal.