General practice

Relation between sexual abuse in childhood and adult depression: case-control study

^a St Patrick's Hospital, James's Street, Dublin 8, Republic of Ireland

Correspondence to: Dr Cheasty dpn@iol.ie

Objective: To examine the association between sexual abuse in childhood and adult depression in women.
Design: Two stage, case detection and case identification design, using the 30-item general health questionnaire and the Beck depression inventory for screening and the affective items relating to current functioning on the schizophrenia and affective disorders schedule to identify depressed cases. Details of sexual abuse in childhood were elicited retrospectively by semistructured interview, and social problems by the social problems questionnaire.
Setting: Three general practices, in middle class suburban, deprived inner city, and rural areas.
Subjects: 1189 women were screened and 237 subsequently interviewed; 132 were depressed.
Results: 49 (37%) of the depressed interviewees and 24 (23%) of the non-depressed interviewees reported experience of sexual abuse when they were aged under 16 years. A positive association existed between the more severe abuse and depression—all those who had experienced penetration were depressed as adults. A relation was also found between sexual abuse in childhood and sexual problems, housing problems, and problems with their children at school.
Conclusion: A positive association between child sexual abuse and depression was confirmed, but this was confined to more severe abuse (penetration or attempted penetration).

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Sexual abuse is not the only childhood adversity that may lead to later depression

Paul A Cotter
BMJ 1998 316: 1244. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Manning, C., Stickley, T. (2009). Childhood abuse and psychosis; a critical review of the literature. Journal of Research in Nursing 14: 531-547 [Abstract]  
• Gladstone, G. L., Parker, G. B., Mitchell, P. B., Malhi, G. S., Wilhelm, K., Austin, M.-P. (2004). Implications of Childhood Trauma for Depressed Women: An Analysis of Pathways From Childhood Sexual Abuse to Deliberate Self-Harm and Revictimization. Am. J. Psychiatry 161: 1417-1425 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Hulme, P. A. (2004). Retrospective Measurement of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Review of Instruments. Child Maltreat 9: 201-217 [Abstract]  
• Lamprecht, F., Sack, M. (2002). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Revisited. Psychosom. Med. 64: 222-237 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Carlier, I. V. E., Voerman, B. E., Gersons, B. P. R. (2000). Intrusive Traumatic Recollections and Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Depressed Patients. Psychosom. Med. 62: 26-32 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Risberg, G., Lundgren, E., Westman, G. (1999). Prevalence of sexualized violence among women: A population-based study in a primary healthcare district. Scand J Public Health 27: 247-253 [Abstract]  
• Weiss, E. L., Longhurst, J. G., Mazure, C. M. (1999). Childhood Sexual Abuse as a Risk Factor for Depression in Women: Psychosocial and Neurobiological Correlates. Am. J. Psychiatry 156: 816-828 [Abstract] [Full text]