Prevalence of history of childhood sexual abuse in consecutive hospital admissions of women with psychotic diagnosis in Israel: A preliminary report

摘要

Dear Dr. Fava,Van Os and colleagues reported in epidemiological studies that childhood sexual abuse (CSA) may be a causative factor in psychosis. However, CSA may be non-normative behavior that is associated with psychosis not in a causative role but because factors that cause schizophrenia, including genetic factors, also break down family social norms. Percentages of psychotic patients that report CSA are high, ranging from 20 to 60% . Most studies do not have a control group and the few that do, often find that the controls report an almost equally high incidence. Legal definitions of CSA often define the age of consent for sexual acts with an adult as 17, but sexual activity goes on before this age, both consensual and forced. 'Abuse' implies unwanted sexual contact, often with a relative, or sexual contact by an adult with a pre-pubertal child. A study of CSA outside of European or American culture can explore whether attitudes towards childhood sexuality are different in Jewish or other cultures. We decided to interview subjects both on admission to the hospital in a psychotic state and again on discharge to evaluate the possibility that reports of sexual abuse in childhood are subject to unreliable reporting in psychosis.