Association between childhood abuse and psychiatric morbidities among hospitalized patients

Abstract

Background: Childhood abuse has been linked with increased risk of adult psychiatric disorders including major depression, substance abuse, anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, and personality disorders. However, only a few from India attempted to study long-term consequences of childhood abuse. Our study aimed to understand the role of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse along with psychiatric co-morbidities in hospitalized patients. Materials and Methods: Patients admitted to psychiatric inpatient services in the age group of 14-45 years for the 1 st time were evaluated for a history of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse on the basis of retrospective chart review. Semi-structured Performa was used to evaluate the patient with a history of child abuse, and they were diagnosed according to International Classification of Diseases-10 diagnostic criteria. Result: The prevalence of child abuse in our inpatient services was 43.29%; emotional abuse (61.9%) was most commonly reported among patient followed by physical (21.43%) and sexual abuse (16.67%). We observed a significant difference in terms of length of hospital stay between abuse (10.29 ± 6.01 days) and nonabuse group (5.90 ± 2.43 days) (t = 4.902, df = 95, P < 0.0001). The boys experienced physical abuse at a younger age (7.43 ± 2.50 years) than girls (13.50 ± 0.70 years). The sexual abuse and emotional abuse were reported at a younger age in girls than boys. We found high prevalence of substance use disorders (40.47%), psychosis (19.04%), and mood disorder (28.57%) among abuse group. Conclusions: The study findings highlight the developing importance of the different forms of abuse on adult psychiatric diagnosis in India. The abused patients are at high risk of the development of psychiatric disorder than the nonabuse group. The increased length of hospitalization among abused group reflects severity and complexity of child abuse. The early detection of social factors contributing to child abuse may be helpful in the prevention of child abuse. Further research is warranted in longitudinal prospective for better understanding the impact of child abuse on psychiatric diagnosis in Indian settings.

Keywords

• Child abuse
• psychiatric diagnosis
• psychiatric inpatients