Child battering and adult psychopathology: an empiric study

Background: Childhood trauma and battering have been associated with adult psychopathology. Aim: To explore the relationship between childhood trauma, somatization, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), affective disorder and borderline personality disorder in hospitalized patients of four Chilean hospitals. Material and methods: Five hundred five patients were screened by a short seven item trauma recollection scale (70 from San Bernardo Hospital, 193 from Salvador Hospital, 9 7 from El Trabajador Hospital and 14 7 from Curico Hospital). A random sample of 85 cases was studied in depth using the CIDI 2.1, depression, PTSD and somatization scales, Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO) and the OQ 45.2 scale. Results: Forty five percent of patients did not report traumatic experiences, 38.4% recalled one or two events and 16.3% three or more traumatic experiences. The most remembered event was physical punishment (28.7%), followed by traumatic separation from parents (27.1%), alcohol and drug use by an adult at home (22%) and presence of family violence (22%). Thirty two percent of the 85 selected cases met CIDI criteria for affective disorder, 20% for post traumatic stress disorder and 11.8% for somatization disorder. There were statistically significant correlations between the frecuence of trauma and post traumatic stress disorder (p <0.001), as well as somatization and depressive disorder (p