Childhood Abuse and Adult Depression

Many studies showed a strong relation between molestation in childhood and severe psychological problems in later life. While this can be demonstrated in statistics real life is often more complicated. So it is not always a good idea to "search" for past hints of abuse if no actual symptoms are present. One rather well known study was published 1998 in the British Medical Journal. The authors demonstrated that depressive disorder of adult women was associated with severe childhood abuse (penetration of attempted penetration). Women who had experienced more minor sexual abuse in childhood, however, were no more likely to be depressed than those with no history of sexual abuse. Full text article of the Journal