The relationship between sexual abuse in childhood and overdoses in adulthood

Abstract

Objective: Controlled studies have shown delibera/e selfharm to be more common in abused populations, but no controlled studies have shown abuse to be more common in selfharming populations. This is thefirst controlled study to determine whether abuse e.x.periences (sexual, physical, and psychological) occur more com­monly in women who take overdoses than in controls. Method: The design was a matched (I: 1) case-con­trol study sel in a district general hospital in England. The subjects were 21 women admitted following delibe­ra/e self-poisoning who were matched with the next non-overdose admission to the same hospital on 5 variables (sex, age, geographical locality, social class, marital status). The main outcome measures used were modified versions of standardised self-report question­naires of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse.
Results: Women who had taken an overdose were more like/y (odds ratio 15.0, 95% confidence interval 2. O to 113. 6) to have been sexual/y abused (both intra­familial and extrafamilial), and sornewhat more likely to have been physically (1.05, 0.99 to 1.12) and psycho­logically (1.02, 1.00 to 1.05) abused. They also were more likely to have been abused at a younger age (6. O, 1.3 to 26.8).
Conclusions: The management of women presenting to hospital after se/f-poisoning should include assess­ment of abuse experiences, and instiga/ion of appro­priate lreatment in those with significan/ effects of abuse.