Sexual abuse is traumatic experiences and also significantly associated with adult psychopathology. Sexual abuses have been reported by 15-22% of adult women in the general population. Early life time histories of physical or sexual abuse are associated with a higher risk of psychiatric disorders such as depressive episodes, mania, and psychosis. However, these problems are predicted and evaluated for near term effects. It is generally neglecting the fact that these traumatic exposures substantially cause a major psychiatric disorder in the long-term, even requiring a psychiatric hospitalization many times. We present as a case series of 13 female patients with sexual abuse or rape stories who were treated with serious psychiatric disorders, emerging after years.
METHOD: We conducted a retrospective study in which 13 hospitalized women that evaluated histories by clinical interviews while
hospitalization.
RESULTS: A total of 13 patients hospitalized of which followed up by retrospective interviews were evaluated. Most of mothers were 25-35 years old and mean age of them was 30.5 years. 7 of them had a history of family psychiatric disorders. 4 of them were married (30.7%), 4 of them were single (30.7%), 3 of them were separated (23.1%) and 2 of them were divorced (15.4%). Furthermore, in the course of clinical interview, major depression were diagnosed as the most frequent disorder among 13 (4 cases, 30.7%) patients of the case group and 3 of them had psychotic disorders (23.1%) included schizophrenia (1 case) and schizoaffective disorder (2 cases), 3 of them had bipolar disorder (23.1%), 2 of them had posttraumatic stress disorder (15.4%), 1 of them had dissociative disorder (7.7%). 11 of the patients had histories of suicide attempts, mean suicide attempts rate was 1.92 and 7 of them had several suicide attempts. The period of psychiatric disorder was changed in among 1-34 years and mean period of disorder was 10.69 years. The onset of the psychiatric disease started average 7.6 years later.
CONCLUSION: It is well known that traumas, especially that take place in the early years of human life may cause a major psychiatric disorder even after years. Rape and abuse victims have the risk to have many psychiatric diseases. In our cases, the onset of the psychiatric diseases are years after abuse or rape histories. None of them have a psychiatric evaluation nor any interventions after their traumatic experiences and also any forensic process. To decide the level of the penalty intended for abuse and rape perpetrators according to Turkish Penal Code, victims are being sent to forensic psychiatry units in order to be evaluated for the psychiatric outcomes. The evaluations mentioned are being held almost during the 6 months after the incident and the last psychiatric conclusion is made maximum 1 year after. We recommend that patients who have many psychiatric hospitalizations and no complete recovery despite the good compliance of psychotropic treatment, should to be evaluated for the traumatic life experiences, especially abuse or rape.