Adult mood disorders and childhood psychological trauma.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the association between adult mood disorders and childhood psychological trauma in a developing country.


METHODS
Adults with and without mood disorders were assessed in a case-control study using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Assessment of childhood trauma included physical and sexual abuse, frequent exposure to violence, and parental loss.


RESULTS
In two independent multivariate analyses, after adjusting for potential confounding factors, we found a higher odds ratio for frequent exposure to violence in the community (p = .037) and for physical abuse by parents or caregivers during childhood/adolescence (p = .012) in the group with mood disorders than in the control group. In secondary analyses splitting the mood disorder group in two subgroups (manic episode, and major depressive episodes/ dysthymia), only manic patients showed significantly higher rates of frequent exposure to violence in the community (p = 0.01) and physical abuse during childhood (p = 0.02) than did patients in the control group. In addition, maniac patients had significantly higher rates of sexual abuse than did controls (p = .03).


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings document an association between violence during childhood and adult mood disorders, especially for manic patients, in a developing country.
Zavaschi
Maria Lucrécia Scherer
ML
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Graeff
Maria Elisa
ME
Menegassi
Marcos Tatit
MT
Mardini
Victor
V
Pires
Denise Winkler Simões
DW
Carvalho
Rafael Homem de
RH
Rohde
Luis Augusto
LA
Eizirik
Cláudio Laks
CL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012931:Social Environment; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology