title: Disclosure of abuse among female patients within general psychiatric care - a cross sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Experiences of abuse are common among women in general psychiatric care. Even so, there are to our knowledge no previous national or international studies exploring disclosure in a general psychiatric setting of female patient's experiences of abuse to staff or to formal and informal networks. This study aimed to explore women's disclosure of experiencing physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse during their most recent contact with staff at a general psychiatric clinic. The study also aimed to determine whether the women have previously disclosed abuse to anyone.
  
  
  METHODS
  A consecutive sampling of eligible female patients at a general psychiatric clinic in an urban area of southern Sweden answered the NorVold Abuse Questionnaire, NorAQ, a self-administrated questionnaire. NorAQ has previously been used and further developed to compare the prevalence of abuse in women present in gynecological outpatient settings in the five Nordic countries. Seventy-seven women with experiences of abuse participated in the research. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most respondents did not disclose their experiences of abuse to staff at the general psychiatric clinic. Women with experiences of physical abuse (n = 40), emotional abuse (n = 37) and sexual abuse (n = 37) chose not to disclose their experiences. Respondents disclosed abuse more often to others than to staff.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings indicated the importance of including routine questions concerning abuse experiences as a natural part of female patients' medical history.
authors.affiliation: Department of Care Science, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, 205 06, Malmö, Sweden. Karin.ormon@mah.se.
authors.forename: K
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0228-1358
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Örmon
authors.affiliation: Department of Care Science, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, 205 06, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sunnqvist
authors.affiliation: Department of Care Science, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, 205 06, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bahtsevani
authors.affiliation: Department of Criminology, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: M Torstensson
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Levander
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D015995:Prevalence; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012650:Self Disclosure; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Adult survivors of abuse; Domestic violence; Intimate partner violence