title: Do mental health clinicians elicit a history of previous trauma in female psychiatric inpatients?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A history of trauma is linked to the development of a wide range of mental health problems, and has long-lasting physiological and psychological consequences. The importance of clinicians directly questioning trauma history has been consistently emphasised in the literature.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether a trauma history is obtained from female psychiatry inpatients during an inpatient admission.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was a retrospective file audit of 100 female patients admitted to the psychiatric ward of a major metropolitan Melbourne Hospital between December 2013 and November 2014.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the files of 51% of patients there was no mention of whether or not the patient had a trauma-abuse history. Eight percent of patients had documentation stating there was no trauma-abuse history. Forty-one percent of the patients had documented evidence of a trauma-abuse history, although only 3% of these patients had a specific description provided. The presence of current illicit drug use and the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder were the only variables associated with an increase in the likelihood of having a documented trauma-abuse history.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a need for clinician retraining, a trauma-informed care model and the incorporation of mandatory inquiry in best practice guidelines to generate a shift in culture in the delivery of mental health care services.
authors: a Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred and Monash University Central Clinical School , Melbourne , Australia.
authors: Claudia Lin
authors: CL
authors: Xiao
authors: a Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred and Monash University Central Clinical School , Melbourne , Australia.
authors: Emorfia
authors: E
authors: Gavrilidis
authors: a Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred and Monash University Central Clinical School , Melbourne , Australia.
authors: Stuart
authors: S
authors: Lee
authors: a Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred and Monash University Central Clinical School , Melbourne , Australia.
authors: Jayashri
authors: J
authors: Kulkarni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018585:Battered Women / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D008605:Mental Health Services; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010343:Patient Admission; D000066550:Physical Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: Mental illness; psychiatric inpatients; psychiatry wards; trauma history