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Memory functioning in adult women traumatized by childhood sexual abuse
Author(s) -
Stein Murray B.,
Hanna Cindy,
Vaerum Vibeke,
Koverola Catherine
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1023/a:1024775222098
Subject(s) - psychology , amnesia , sexual abuse , memory impairment , clinical psychology , child abuse , memory disorder , psychiatry , posttraumatic stress , poison control , injury prevention , cognitive disorder , cognition , cognitive impairment , medicine , environmental health
Memory impairment has been reported in some studies of patients with combat‐related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and in rape victims with PTSD. The authors tested whether explicit memory impairment was evident in adult women who were traumatized by severe sexual abuse in childhood. The California Verbal Learning Test (Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 1987) and the Benton Visual Retention Task (Benton, 1974) were administered to 22 female adult survivors of childhood sexual trauma and to 20 demographically and educationally similar nonvictimized women. No evidence was found of explicit memory impairment in the abuse survivors. Furthermore, neither PTSD severity, dissociative symptom severity, nor extent of preexisting amnesia for childhood trauma contributed to the variance in memory functioning. Additional studies are needed to determine the extent to which impaired explicit memory functioning is a common feature of posttraumatic stress syndromes.