Long-term consequences of childhood physical and sexual abuse

Psychiatric nurses are confronted daily with individuals who are suffering from the consequences of trauma. Physical and sexual abuse is associated with acute psychiatric symptomatology in children and may progress to a spectrum of psychiatric and medical disorders in adults, ranging from the extreme adaptive reactions seen in multiple personality disorder and refractory psychosis to intermediate adaptive reactions present in borderline personality disorder to more delimited reactions manifest in chronic headaches and unremitting pelvic pain. Subjects sampled in inpatient, outpatient, psychiatric, medical, criminal, and community settings describe the link between histories of widespread abuse and various intractable and common disorders. This article presents the state-of-the-art knowledge of the long-term sequelae of childhood physical and sexual abuse by critically reviewing the initial uncontrolled investigations and mounting evidence from controlled studies.