title: Sexual abuse histories and sequelae in female psychiatric emergency room patients.
abstract: The charts of 100 nonpsychotic female patients in a psychiatric emergency room were reviewed to locate references to history of sexual molestation: 50 charts were selected at random from emergency room files, and 50 charts had been written by clinicians asked to query abuse history. A substantially higher rate of sexual abuse was found for patients who had been directly asked about sexual molestation (70%) than for the random sample (6%). Further analysis linked molestation history to suicidality, substance abuse, sexual difficulties, multiple psychiatric diagnoses, and axis II traits or disorders--especially borderline personality. Severe abuse and multiple abusers best predicted psychiatric sequelae.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Briere
authors.forename: L Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Zaidi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D004637:Emergency Services, Psychiatric; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008487:Medical History Taking; D008499:Medical Records; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D012494:Sampling Studies; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology