This study from Norway examines mental health status of women with child sexual abuse (CSA) who formerly had outpatient psychotherapy for anxiety disorders and/or depression. The relative contributions of CSA and other family background risk factors (FBRF) to aspects of mental health status are also explored.

At a mean of 5.1 years after outpatient psychotherapy, 56 female outpatients with CSA and 56 without CSA were personally examined by an independent female psychiatrist. Systematic information about current mental health and functioning was collected by structured interview and questionnaires.

Among women with CSA 95% had a mental disorder, 50% had PTSD, and mean global assessment of functioning (GAF) score was 61.8 ± 10.6. In contrast, 70% of women without CSA had a mental disorder, 14% had PTSD, and mean GAF 71.2 + 8.5. GAF and trauma scale scores were mainly determined by CSA, while FBRF mainly influenced the global psychopathology and dissociation scores.

We have little knowledge on the mental health status at long-term in women with CSA who had psychotherapy. This study found their mental status to be rather poor, and worse than that of women without CSA who had psychotherapy for the same disorders. From the broad spectrum of mental disorders associated with CSA, this study concerns only women treated as outpatients for anxiety disorders and/or non-psychotic depressions.

Women with CSA showed poor mental health at long-term follow-up after treatment. The fitness of the psychodynamic individual psychotherapy given, or to what extent treatment can remedy the consequences of such childhood adversities, is discussed.

Peritraumatic dissociation is a risk factor for developing PTSD. The Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire (PDEQ) is a self-report inventory used to assess dissociation that occurred at the time of a trauma. The aim of this study was the validation the PDEQ in French.

Ninety French speaking traumatized victims presenting to the emergency department were recruited. They were administered the PDEQ shortly after exposure and others trauma-related measures 2 weeks and 1 month posttrauma.

Principal components factor analyses suggested a single factor solution for the PDEQ. Significant correlations between the PDEQ and acute and posttraumatic stress symptoms indicated moderate to strong convergent validity. The PDEQ also showed satisfactory test–retest reliability and internal consistency.

This study is the first one to investigate such detailed psychometric findings on the PDEQ. This confirms the unity of the concept of peritraumatic dissociation and the value of the PDEQ-French Version to assess it.

To evaluate the effects of internal displacement and resettlement within Turkey on the emotional and behavioral profile of children, age 5–18 after controlling for possible confounding and demographic variables.

We conducted a national population survey using a self-weighted, equal probability sample. We compared the CBCL, TRF and YSR responses regarding children with (n = 1644) and without (n = 1855) experience of internal displacement. We examined the effects of gender, age, paternal employment, resettlement, urban residence and physical illness.

The children and adolescents with internal displacement had significantly higher internalizing, externalizing and total problem scores on the CBCL and YSR, and higher internalizing scores on the TRF. The effect of displacement was related to higher internalizing problems when factors like physical illness, child age, child gender and urban residence were accounted. The overall effect was small explaining only 0.1–1.5% of the total variance by parent reports, and not evident by teacher reports.

To our knowledge the present study is the first to examine Turkish children and adolescents with and without experience of internal displacement. The results are consistent with previous immigration studies: child age, gender, presence of physical illness and urban residence were more important predictors of internalization and externalization problem scores irrespective of informant source.

This study investigated psychological symptoms in Bosnian women 3–4 years after their arrival in Sweden.

A simple random sample of 163 Bosnian women aged 19–59 was drawn from the Swedish populations register in 1996. The control group consisted of 392 Swedish-born women. Data were collected in face-to-face interviews. The Hopkins Symptom Checklist 25 (HSCL-25) and the Posttraumatic Symptom Scale (PTSS-10) were used to measure psychological symptoms of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) for psychological symptoms after adjustment for age, country of birth, education, marital status, economic difficulties, social network, and feeling secure.

The prevalence of symptoms of PTSD was 28.3% among the Bosnian women. Bosnian women had significantly higher risks of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress than Swedish-born women. For depression the odds ratio was 9.50 among Bosnian women.

Psychiatric community interventions need to target Bosnian refugee women. Awareness among health-care workers who encounter these women in a clinical setting should be improved.