Incidence of childhood abuse among women with psychiatric disorders compared with healthy women: Data from a tertiary care centre in India

Childhood abuse has been recognized as a precursor and a maintaining factor for adult psychopathology. There are very few studies that have investigated the incidence of childhood abuse in adult women with psychiatric disorders. Hence, this current investigation is an attempt to study and compare the incidence of childhood abuse (physical, emotional and sexual) among women seeking treatment for psychiatric disorders to healthy women. Using consecutive sampling, women seeking treatment for psychiatric disorders (N = 609) and a group of age-education matched healthy women (N = 100) were recruited for the study from a tertiary mental health-care hospital in India. The participants were screened for childhood abuse using the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool - Retrospective (ICAST)-R (I-CAST R, International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) and The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 2009). Emotional abuse was significantly more common among women with psychiatric disorders compared with healthy women (p < 0.05). On overall abuse, there was a trend to significance in women with psychiatric disorders compared with healthy women (p = 0.07). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups on physical and sexual abuse (all p > 0.13). There was no statistically significant difference in all three types of abuse across disorder categories, though the report was more among women with severe mental disorders. Women with psychiatric disorders reported more emotional and overall abuse compared with healthy women. Sexual and physical abuse was similar in both groups. It is likely that more emotional abuse predisposes these women to psychiatric disorders.