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Relationship of childhood physical and sexual abuse to adult bipolar disorder
Author(s) -
Hyun Mina,
Friedman Seth D,
Dunner David L
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
bipolar disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.285
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1399-5618
pISSN - 1398-5647
DOI - 10.1034/j.1399-5618.2000.020206.x
Subject(s) - sexual abuse , psychiatry , physical abuse , bipolar disorder , psychology , clinical psychology , psychological abuse , child abuse , incidence (geometry) , medicine , poison control , injury prevention , mood , medical emergency , physics , optics
Objectives:To characterize whether adult depressives with either bipolar or unipolar disorder differ in the prevalence of childhood sexual or physical abuse.
Method: The investigators reviewed data from patients who were evaluated over a 2‐year period by a semi‐structured clinical interview. In total, 333 cases with a bipolar or unipolar diagnosis were included in the present study.
Results: A childhood history of abuse, in particular sexual abuse, was significantly more frequent in bipolar subjects compared with unipolar subjects. Consistent with previous studies, women reported higher rates of sexual abuse than men, although no interaction by diagnosis was shown. Sexual abuse incidence in male samples was markedly dissimilar, with male bipolar subjects demonstrating a significantly increased rate of sexual abuse and combined sexual and physical abuse compared with unipolar male subjects.
Conclusion: The increased incidence of sexual abuse in women supports growing evidence of gender differences in sexual abuse among adult depressives. In contrast to literature reports, the finding that male bipolar patients have significantly increased rates of sexual abuse histories suggests differences in psychiatric depressive subgroups. This result may reflect the particular characteristics of our cohort (treatment resistant, privately insured, and educated). Further work will aid in characterizing sexual abuse prevalence in other male bipolar samples.