Citation

Gekker M, Coutinho ESF, Berger W, Luz MPD, Araújo AXG, Pagotto LFADC, Marques-Portella C, Figueira I, Mendlowicz MV. Psychiatry Res. 2018; 267: 1-6.

Affiliation

Institute of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (IPUB/UFRJ). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Universidade Federal Fluminense (MSM-UFF), Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Electronic address: mmendlowicz@yahoo.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.psychres.2018.05.042

PMID

29879599

Abstract

Childhood abuse and PTSD are independently associated with severe psychiatric comorbidity. We hypothesized that among patients with adult-onset PTSD, a history of child abuse was associated with increased prevalence and severity of comorbid mental disorders. Participants were 109 adult treatment-seeking patients, 23.9% of whom had a history of childhood sexual, physical or emotional abuse. The socio-demographic characteristics and comorbidity profile of PTSD patients with and without history of child abuse were compared using the two-tailed t-test and the chi-square test. PTSD patients with a history of child abuse had significantly higher average PCL-C hyperarousal [21.8 (SD = 3.6) vs 19.8 (SD = 3.5)] and BDI [35.7 (SD = 9.2) vs 29.1 (SD = 13.9)] scores, a significantly increased average number of lifetime [4.85 (SD = 1.43) vs 3.93 (SD = 1.33)] and current [4.46 (SD = 1.24) vs 3.75 (SD = 1.32)] comorbid disorders, and a greater prevalence of lifetime (73.1% vs 44.6%) and current (79.2% vs 46.7%) panic disorder/agoraphobia and of psychotic symptoms (73.1% vs 30.1%). All effect sizes were in the medium to large range. Adult-onset PTSD patients with a history of child abuse may represent a subgroup with a more severe form of the disorder that is associated with a more serious clinical course, treatment resistance and poorer outcome.

Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Language: en

Keywords

Agoraphobia; Anxiety disorders; Child abuse; Depressive disorder; Mood disorders; Panic disorder; Post-traumatic stress disorder