TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2000//
TI  - Chronic pain and health care utilization in women with a history of childhood sexual abuse
JO  - Child abuse and neglect
A1  - Finestone, H. M.
A1  - Stenn, P.
A1  - Davies, Ffion C.
A1  - Stalker, C.
A1  - Fry, R.
A1  - Koumanis, J.
SP  - 547
EP  - 556
VL  - 24
IS  - 4
N2  - OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional controlled study investigated the association between chronic pain, health care utilization and a history of childhood sexual abuse. SUBJECTS: Three groups, constituting 80 women in total, were studied (1) attendees at group therapy for individuals who had experienced childhood sexual abuse (n = 26); (2) Two control groups consisting of nonabused (a) psychiatric outpatients (n = 33); and (b) nurses (n = 21). SETTING: The setting was a university affiliated community and tertiary care hospital in London. Ontario. OUTCOME MEASURES: Each subject voluntarily completed questionnaires documenting history of childhood abuse, pain, psychological symptomatology and medical and surgical history. RESULTS: Sixty-nine percent of the women who had experienced childhood sexual abuse reported a chronic painful condition lasting more than three months, compared to 43% of the combined control groups (p = .026). Women who had experienced childhood sexual abuse reported a greater number of painful body areas (p = .003), more diffuse pain and more diagnoses of fibromyalgia (p = .013). They had more surgeries (p = .037), hospitalizations (p = .0004) and family physician visits (p = .046). CONCLUSIONS: Women with a history of childhood sexual abuse reported more chronic pain symptoms and utilized more health care resources compared to nonabused control subjects. Identification of such a history in the patient experiencing persisting pain may be the first step toward a successful combination of medical and psychosocial interventions.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0145-2134
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -