Prevalent psychiatric diagnoses as a consequence of sexual abuse during childhood and adolescence

Abstract

Introduction: the prevalence of sexual abuse during childhood and adolescence is very high throughout the world. Healthcare professionals must be aware of the psychiatric consequences arising from this abuse in order to carry out prevention and implement appropriate therapeutic strategies. Objective: to update knowledge on the main psychiatric diagnoses that arise from having suffered sexual abuse during childhood and adolescence. Method: the literature search was carried out in the Medline Full Text, PubMed, SciELO España, PubPsych and BIREME databases, using DeCS and intuitive descriptors. Once the relevant inclusion and exclusion criteria had been applied, 12 studies were selected. Results: all of them showed more or less severe psychiatric diagnoses, especially the more severe and frequent the abuse had been. In terms of prevalence, the diagnoses of major depressive disorder, social anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder stood out. Gender differences were observed, in that women showed a higher prevalence of the diagnoses of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and psychotic symptoms. Conclusion: the psychiatric diagnoses arising from child sexual abuse belong essentially to the affective and anxiety areas. Although these results have been obtained —mainly from cross-sectional studies—, longitudinal studies would be necessary to allow the follow-up of the consequences and a more consistent analysis of them. This would help to detect ‘cases’ before they become chronic and to establish a specialized, individualized treatment for each of the victims early on.