Further evidence for the significance of a childhood abuse history in psychiatric inpatients.

The high prevalence of histories of childhood sexual and physical abuse in inpatient psychiatric populations is documented. In the present study, 38 female inpatients on a psychiatric unit in a teaching hospital were administered an abuse questionnaire and standard measures of psychological distress. Seventy-six percent of the women reported some history of abuse before the age of 16. As predicted, women who reported a childhood history of physical or sexual abuse scored significantly higher on measures of symptomatology and psychopathology as compared with women who did not report an abuse history. Findings confirm the reports of previous researchers, providing further evidence of the generalizability of these observations.