Sexual Abuse in Girls Leads to Later Substance Abuse

Young girls who are forced to have sex are three times more likely to develop psychiatric disorders or abuse alcohol and drugs in adulthood, than girls who are not sexually abused, researchers report. The study, which involved more than 1,400 adult female twins, found that the sibling who was abused had a consistently higher risk of psychiatric disorders, such as depression and bulimia, despite being raised in the same family and having the same genetic makeup as her sister.

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Sexually Abused Children at Risk For Subsequent Problems

Young children who have been sexually abused are significantly more likely than non-abused children to develop behavioral, educational and chronic health problems over time, according to findings published in the August issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Dr. C. J. Hobbs, of St. James’s University Hospital, Leeds, UK, and colleagues studied outcomes of 140 children identified in 1989 as having been sexually abused at the age of 7 years or younger, compared with 83 other children who were classmates at the time of diagnosis.

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Evidence Mixed on Abused Becoming Abusers

Children who suffer physical abuse at the hands of their parents are widely thought to be more likely than non-abused kids to harm their own children as adults. But a review of scientific studies on the topic shows that there is only limited evidence to support this claim. Dr. Ilgi Ozturk Ertem and colleagues at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, searched the medical literature for studies on the presence of child abuse in two generations.

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Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse Similar for Both Sexes

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is common for both boys and girls, and the long-term consequences are similar for both sexes, according to the results of a retrospective cohort study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Women were identified as perpetrators in a significant percentage of cases.

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Abused Women Experience More Illness

Women who have experienced abuse in childhood or as adults are far more likely than are other women to develop common illnesses, according to results of a Swedish study. “The manifestations and forms of violence vary in different settings, and virtually wherever this issue has been researched an under-recognized burden has been unveiled,” according to Dr. Gunilla Krantz from the Nordic School of Public Health in Goteborg and Dr. Per-Olof Ostergren from Malmo University Hospital in Sweden.

The investigators examined the link between violence and abuse during childhood or adulthood and the development of common symptoms in 397 women aged 40 to 50 years.

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