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Post-traumatic stress disorder in women who were victims of childhood sexual abuse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Kevin O'Neill*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University College Dublin
Kamal Gupta*
Affiliation:
St. Brendan's Hospital
*
*Dept. of Psychiatry, U.C.D., St. Brendan's Hospital, Rathdown Road, Dublin 7
**Currently Registrar in Psychiatry, Maidstone General Hosptial, Maidstone, England

Abstract

Twenty-six women who had been sexually abused in childhood were assessed by means of structured interviews as to the nature of the abusive experience and subsequent psychiatric disorder. Nineteen (73.1%) fulfilled the criteria of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a comparison was made between PTSD and non-PTSD groups with regard to quantitative abuse variables. The phenomenon of latency or delay in onset in PTSD symptomatology was investigated. The possible implications of those findings were discussed.

Type
Original Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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