HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE AND GENERAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Reported history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) was correlated with g eneral measures of psychopathology on the SCL-90-R in a sample that in cluded inpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), inpatien ts with major depression, and a nonpatient control group. When subject s who reported abuse were compared with those who did not, scores for the Global Severity Index (GSI) and all subscales of the SCL-90-R, exc ept for the obsessive-compulsive and somatization subscales, were sign ificantly higher. When only those subjects who reported CSA were studi ed and when specific measures of CSA were the independent variables an d SCL-90-R subscales were the dependent variables, scores on the hosti lity, interpersonal sensitivity, and paranoia subscales of the SCL-90- R were significantly higher. Because a large proportion of the sample consisted of borderline patients, and because both the specific measur es of CSA and the borderline diagnosis could predict similar SCL-90-R subscale results, a series of stepwise regressions were performed. In the first regression, diagnosis, gender, and specific measures of CSA were the predictor variables and SCL-90-R subscale scores were the dep endent variables; in the second regression, SCL-90-R subscales and spe cific measures of CSA were the predictor variables and diagnosis was t he dependent variable, Interpersonal sensitivity was the only signific ant predictor of the borderline diagnosis. We suggest that, at least i n some cases, interpersonal sensitivity may be the constitutional/envi ronmental substrate on which traumatic experiences interact to arrive at the borderline diagnosis. Copyright (C) 1997 by W.B. Saunders Compa ny