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Psychiatric disorders are more prevalent among victims of sex abuse, with those with a history of being raped having the most occurrences of depression, eating disorders and post traumatic stress disorder. The study, conducted by the Mayo Clinic, determined that the age and gender of the victim did not impact the strong correlation between multiple mental health disorders; any victimization increased the likelihood of mental health difficulties.
Increased incidents of suicide and attempted suicide, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and even sleep disorders were closely linked with a history of sexual abuse and rape. Dr. Ali Zirakzadeh, who conducted the study, says, “Survivors of sexual abuse are commonly seen in general medical practice. Sexual abuse survivors face a challenging spectrum of physical and mental health symptoms, which results in high health care utilization, oftentimes without improvement in quality of life.”
More than 20 percent of adults and 33 percent of children in certain populations may be survivors of some type of sexual abuse, making about a quarter of all primary care practice patients survivors of sex abuse. While the study reveals a disturbing problem for people who have already suffered tremendously, Zirakzadeh says, “The good news for patients is that physicians are now more aware of the link between abuse and psychiatric illness so that abuse survivors may be more readily identified and referred to specialists for treatment. We hope that heightened awareness in clinical practice leads to improved outcomes for our patients.”
The study also looked at why some sex abuse survivors do not experience psychiatric problems and have determined that there may be something in their genetics that protects them. Additional research may be necessary, but if there is a genetic protection against psychiatric symptoms, it may be useful in determining treatment options for all sufferers.
Shadra Bruce is a contributing writer to Mental Health News.
The Let Go…Let Peace Come In Foundation is a newly formed nonprofit with a mission to help heal and support adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse worldwide. We are actively seeking adult survivors who would be willing to post a childhood photo and caption, their story, or their creative expressions to our website http://www.letgoletpeacecomein.org. By uniting survivors from across the globe we can help provide a stronger and more powerful voice to those survivors who have not yet found the courage to speak out. We also have a prepared a youtube video that can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4PDC03Gl2k. Together we can; together we should; together we NEED to stand up and be counted. Please visit our site for more details on how you can send us your submissions.
Thank you for everything you do!
Gretchen Paules
Administrative Director
Let Go…Let Peace Come In Foundation