title: Consistency of reporting sexual and physical abuse during psychological treatment of personality disorder: an explorative study.
abstract: The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of decreasing, consistent and increasing reports of sexual and physical abuse after 12 months of long-term psychological treatment of personality disorders, to investigate demographic and clinical characteristics predictive of inconsistency of reporting abuse, and to explore whether autobiographical memory may account for this inconsistency. In 229 clinical participants with an SCID II diagnosed personality disorder, 180 (78.6%) reported the same instances of invasive sexual and/or physical abuse on a trauma questionnaire (SPAQ) at baseline and follow-up, 25 (10.9%) decreased and 24 (10.4%) increased their abuse reports. Consistency of reporting abuse did not differ between schema-focused therapy, clarification-oriented psychotherapy and treatment-as-usual. Current depressive episode (SCID-I) and decreased capacity to produce specific negative memories on the Autobiographical Memory Test were characteristic of decreasing abuse reporters, while increasing abuse reporters showed higher levels of Cluster A personality pathology (in particular schizotypal traits) on the Assessment of DSM-IV Personality Disorders (ADP-IV). These results suggest that even in treatment procedures directed at exploring someone's personal past with abuse-related imagery consistency of reporting abuse is quite stable. However, certain clinical characteristics may make some persons more likely to change their trauma reports. Moreover, reduced negative memory specificity may represent an avoidant strategy associated with no longer reporting instances of abuse.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands. Spinhoven@FSW.LeidenUniv.NL
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Spinhoven
authors.forename: Lotte
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bamelis
authors.forename: Rimke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Haringsma
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Molendijk
authors.forename: Arnoud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arntz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012650:Self Disclosure; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires