scholarly journals A letter to my abusers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candace Adams
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Secondary Trauma ◽  
Emotional Trauma

A letter to my abusers conveys feelings about secondary abuse and psychological and emotional trauma in addition to incest, rape, and sexual abuse during my childhood. The content in the letters refers to how my mother and sister inflicted secondary trauma by refusing to listen to my narrative on my abusive father. Using excerpts and examples from my twenty-year-old dissertation, I lovingly and sorrowfully say goodbye to my family as I make my way to the next chapter in my life.

scholarly journals Experiences of mothers of sexually abused children in North-West province, post disclosure

Curationis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaboipolelwe M. Masilo ◽  
Mashudu Davhana-Maselesele
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Secondary Trauma ◽  
Emotional Pain ◽  
Abused Children ◽  
North West ◽  
South African Police Service ◽  
The North ◽  
North West Province ◽  
Sexually Abused Children

Background: Sexual violence against children is increasing at an alarming rate in South Africa. In 2010 the South African Police Service (SAPS) reported 21 538 rape cases of children under 18 years. In the North-West province (NWP) 5039 incidents of rape cases were reported in 2009. Mothers often experience emotional pain following child sexual abuse disclosure. It is seldom acknowledged that these mothers experience trauma and need support, post disclosure. The researcher has no known evidence of research conducted on the experiences of these mothers in NWP. Objective: The objective of the study was to explore and describe the experiences of mothers of sexually abused children post disclosure of the abuse. Method: The research design was qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual. Purposive sampling was used to select mothers of sexually abused children aged 23 to 59 years whose children ranged from 0 to 16 years. Permission to conduct the study was sought from the Provincial Department of Health and informed consent was obtained from the mothers. Interviews were conducted with a sample of n = 17 until data saturation. Data were collected through in-depth interviews using a voice recorder and field notes to enhance triangulation. Tesch’s method of open coding was used to analyse data. Results: Findings indicated that mothers experienced emotional pain post sexual abuse. They expressed shock, anger and guilt for not noticing the abuse. They showed significant depression as a result of lack of support by stakeholders. Conclusion: Mothers experienced secondary trauma that poses social and psychological challenges with far-reaching implications.

Courts and Torts: The Psychiatrist Preparing for Trial

1997 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 497-501
Author(s):  
Brian F Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Product Liability ◽  
Motor Vehicle Accidents ◽  
Emotional Trauma ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Vehicle Accidents ◽  
Emotional Suffering ◽  
Monetary Compensation

Objective: To outline how a psychiatric expert can do an impartial assessment and medicolegal report and then give an effective presentation in court that can sustain cross-examination. Methods: The legal principles of litigating emotional trauma are reviewed, including proving causation, characterizing emotional suffering, assessing disability, and determining a realistic prognosis. Results: Psychiatrists must understand the interplay of legal and psychiatric principles when they are asked to assess litigants who are suing for monetary compensation for a widening range of emotional injuries resulting from motor vehicle accidents, slips and falls, incest and sexual abuse of children, discrimination, unlawful dismissal, malpractice, human-made disasters, product liability, and intentional torts, to name a few. Conclusion: The psychiatrist can prepare his or her attitude, knowledge, and skills to give a presentation in court that will be credible, trustworthy, and dynamic. With adequate preparation, the psychiatric expert can bring an informed psychiatric perspective to the court that will have a significant impact on the outcome of the judicial deliberations.

scholarly journals O8.5. SIGNS OF ADVERSITY - A NOVEL MACHINE LEARNING APPROACH TO CHILDHOOD TRAUMA, BRAIN STRUCTURE AND CLINICAL PROFILES

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S20-S20
Author(s):  
David Popovic ◽  
Anne Ruef ◽  
Dominic B Dwyer ◽  
Dennis Hedderich ◽  
Linda A Antonucci ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Trauma ◽  
Clinical Impact ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Emotional Trauma ◽  
Machine Learning Approach ◽  
Trait Level

Abstract Background Childhood maltreatment (CM) is a major psychiatric risk factor and leads to long-lasting physical and mental health implications throughout the affected individual’s lifespan. Nonetheless, the neuroanatomical correlates of CM and their specific clinical impact remain elusive. This might be attributed to the complex, multidimensional nature of CM as well as to the restrictions of traditional analysis pipelines using nosological grouping, univariate analysis and region-of-interest approaches. To overcome these issues, we present a novel transdiagnostic and naturalistic machine learning approach towards a better and more comprehensive understanding of the clinical and neuroanatomical complexity of CM. Methods We acquired our dataset from the multi-center European PRONIA cohort (www.pronia.eu). Specifically, we selected 649 male and female individuals, comprising young, minimally medicated patients with clinical high-risk states for psychosis as well as recent-onset of depression or psychosis and healthy volunteers. As part of our analysis approach, we created a new Matlab Toolbox, which performs multivariate Sparse Partial Least Squares Analysis in a robust machine learning framework. We employed this algorithm to detect multi-layered associations between combinations of items from the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and grey matter volume (GMV) and assessed their generalizability via nested cross-validation. The clinical relevance of these CM signatures was assessed by correlating them to a wide range of clinical measurements, including current functioning (GAF, GF), depressivity (BDI), quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) and personality traits (NEO-FFI). Results Overall, we detected three distinct signatures of sexual, physical and emotional maltreatment. The first signature consisted of an age-dependent sexual abuse pattern and a corresponding GMV pattern along the prefronto-thalamo-cerebellar axis. The second signature yielded a sex-dependent physical and sexual abuse pattern with a corresponding GMV pattern in parietal, occipital and subcortical regions. The third signature was a global emotional trauma signature, independent of age or sex, and projected to a brain structural pattern in sensory and limbic brain regions. Regarding the clinical impact of these signatures, the emotional trauma signature was most strongly associated with massively impaired state- and trait-level characteristics. Both on a phenomenological and on a brain structural level, the emotional trauma pattern was significantly correlated with lower levels of functioning, higher depression scores, decreased quality of life and maladaptive personality traits. Discussion Our findings deliver multimodal, data-driven evidence for a differential impact of sexual, physical and emotional trauma on brain structure and clinical state- and trait-level phenotypes. They also highlight the multidimensional nature of CM, which consists of multiple layers of highly complex trauma-brain patterns. In broader terms, our study emphasizes the potential of machine learning approaches in generating novel insights into long-standing psychiatric topics.

Childhood trauma and auditory verbal hallucinations

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (12) ◽  
pp. 2475-2484 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Daalman ◽  
K. M. J. Diederen ◽  
E. M. Derks ◽  
R. van Lutterveld ◽  
R. S. Kahn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Trauma ◽  
Psychotic Disorder ◽  
Emotional Abuse ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Emotional Trauma ◽  
Auditory Verbal Hallucinations ◽  
Physical And Sexual Abuse

BackgroundHallucinations have consistently been associated with traumatic experiences during childhood. This association appears strongest between physical and sexual abuse and auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). It remains unclear whether traumatic experiences mainly colour the content of AVH or whether childhood trauma triggers the vulnerability to experience hallucinations in general. In order to investigate the association between hallucinations, childhood trauma and the emotional content of hallucinations, experienced trauma and phenomenology of AVH were investigated in non-psychotic individuals and in patients with a psychotic disorder who hear voices.MethodA total of 127 non-psychotic individuals with frequent AVH, 124 healthy controls and 100 psychotic patients with AVH were assessed for childhood trauma. Prevalence of childhood trauma was compared between groups and the relation between characteristics of voices, especially emotional valence of content, and childhood trauma was investigated.ResultsBoth non-psychotic individuals with AVH and patients with a psychotic disorder and AVH experienced more sexual and emotional abuse compared with the healthy controls. No difference in the prevalence of traumatic experiences could be observed between the two groups experiencing AVH. In addition, no type of childhood trauma could distinguish between positive or negative emotional valence of the voices and associated distress. No correlations were found between sexual abuse and emotional abuse and other AVH characteristics.ConclusionsThese results suggest that sexual and emotional trauma during childhood render a person more vulnerable to experience AVH in general, which can be either positive voices without associated distress or negative voices as part of a psychotic disorder.

Malpractice & Negligence: State Supreme Courts Limit Therapists’ Duties to Third Parties

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-205
Author(s):  
Megan Cleary
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
New Hampshire ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
State Supreme Courts ◽  
Recovered Memories ◽  
Supreme Courts ◽  
Repressed Memory ◽  
University Of Colorado

In recent years, the law in the area of recovered memories in child sexual abuse cases has developed rapidly. See J.K. Murray, “Repression, Memory & Suggestibility: A Call for Limitations on the Admissibility of Repressed Memory Testimony in Abuse Trials,” University of Colorado Law Review, 66 (1995): 477-522, at 479. Three cases have defined the scope of liability to third parties. The cases, decided within six months of each other, all involved lawsuits by third parties against therapists, based on treatment in which the patients recovered memories of sexual abuse. The New Hampshire Supreme Court, in Hungerford v. Jones, 722 A.2d 478 (N.H. 1998), allowed such a claim to survive, while the supreme courts in Iowa, in J.A.H. v. Wadle & Associates, 589 N.W.2d 256 (Iowa 1999), and California, in Eear v. Sills, 82 Cal. Rptr. 281 (1991), rejected lawsuits brought by nonpatients for professional liability.

Survey Says Encopresis in Boys Can Be a Sign of Sexual Abuse

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
TIMOTHY F. KIRN
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse

Effectiveness of Programs for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amaia Del Campo ◽  
Marisalva Fávero
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Prevention Programs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse Prevention ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Methodological Considerations

Abstract. During the last decades, several studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of sexual abuse prevention programs implemented in different countries. In this article, we present a review of 70 studies (1981–2017) evaluating prevention programs, conducted mostly in the United States and Canada, although with a considerable presence also in other countries, such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The results of these studies, in general, are very promising and encourage us to continue this type of intervention, almost unanimously confirming its effectiveness. Prevention programs encourage children and adolescents to report the abuse experienced and they may help to reduce the trauma of sexual abuse if there are victims among the participants. We also found that some evaluations have not considered the possible negative effects of this type of programs in the event that they are applied inappropriately. Finally, we present some methodological considerations as critical analysis to this type of evaluations.

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