Prevalence and Correlates of Physical and Sexual Assault History in Patients with Schizophrenia

Background and subjects: The present study reports the prevalence of sexual and physical abuse in a sample of 98outpatients with schizophrenia in Egypt. Clinical assessment consisted of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Trauma Assessment Questionnaire (TAA), and demographic and psychosocial factors. Results: One half of the sample of patients with schizophrenia had experiences of sexual or physical abuse prior to the onset of their illness. Contrary to previous reports, sexual abuse was significantly more reported among males compared to female patients while two-thirds of the patients reported physical abuse and it was significantly more among females .Compared with non-abused patients (n =45), the abused patients (n =53) showed lowered scoring on the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale. However, no difference in psychotic symptoms in patients with either physical or sexual abuse alone or any of them. Conclusions: We consider this topic to be underestimated and accurate figures are very difficult as there are variable degrees of cultural differences with its social and religious background. Clinicians should be alerted to the high prevalence of abuse in this population and efforts should be targeted to their poor psychosocial functions.