title: [Sexual abuse: a cause for psychosomatic illnesses].
abstract: A human being is a psychosomatic entity, an inseparable mind/body unit. Psychosomatic illness is caused by a break of this vulnerable internal equilibrium from important emotional perturbations provoked by experiences of abuse. Patients rarely consult their physician for abuse they suffered, and they often keep it a lifetime secret. Moreover, since there is a latency period between the abuse and the emergence of physical symptoms, neither the physician nor the patient realize how past abuse and present symptoms are related. Symptomatic treatment cannot treat the root pathologies and thus, psychosomatic illnesses most commonly become chronic.
authors.affiliation: Médecine Psychosomatique AMPP, 1226 Th6nex, Suisse. corgauthier@bluewin.ch
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gauthier
mesh_terms: D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D006801:Humans; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology*; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology