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Childhood Sexual Experiences with Adults

A Comparison of Reports by Women Psychiatric Patients and General-Practice Attenders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Robert L. Palmer*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester
Linda Coleman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester
Deborah Chaloner
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester
Rhoda Oppenheimer
Affiliation:
Department of Social Services, Leicestershire County Council and Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester
Jennifer Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester
*
University Department of Psychiatry, Leicester General Hospital, Gwendolen Road, Leicester LE5 4PW

Abstract

Reports of childhood sexual experiences with adults were collected from 120 women attending general-practice surgeries and 115 women psychiatric patients. The method of study, research team and county of residence were the same for the two groups. The psychiatric patients tended to report rates of events higher than the general-practice attenders by a factor of 2–3. The results suggest an association between such experiences and later psychiatric patienthood and are compatible with a causal role for them in some cases.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

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