@article{ref1,
title="Disclosure of abuse among female patients within general psychiatric care - a cross sectional study",
journal="BMC psychiatry",
year="2016",
author="Ormon, K. and Sunnqvist, C. and Bahtsevani, C. and Levander, M. Torstensson",
volume="16",
number="1",
pages="e79-e79",
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. <br><br>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. <br><br>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. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated the importance of including routine questions concerning abuse experiences as a natural part of female patients' medical history.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1471-244X",
doi="10.1186/s12888-016-0789-6",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-0789-6"
}