#MeToo on the Canadian Prairies: Raising Awareness of Sexual Assaults and Mental Health in Women Abused by Intimate Partners

2021 ◽  
pp. 107780122110326
Author(s):  
Leslie M. Tutty ◽  
Kendra L. Nixon

Studies of intimate partner sexual assault (IPSA) and its effects on mental health are limited. This secondary data analysis examines IPSA, a history of child sexual abuse, depression, trauma, mental distress and quality of life in 665 Canadian women, 41% of whom had been sexually assaulted by intimate partners; 53% were sexually abused as children. Women who had experienced any IPSA had significantly higher scores on all Composite Abuse subscales (IPV), mental distress (SCL-10), and depression (CES-D-10). PTSD (PCL) was higher for women with both IPSA and CSA histories. Implications for advocates, clinicians, and researchers are presented.

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110139
Author(s):  
Rachel Langevin ◽  
Martine Hébert ◽  
Audrey Kern

The effects of child sexual abuse (CSA) have been found to surpass generations as maternal history of CSA is associated with increased difficulties in sexually abused children. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this association. The present study aimed to test maternal mental health symptoms including psychological distress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and dissociation as mediators of the relationship between maternal CSA and children’s internalizing, externalizing, and dissociation symptoms in a large sample of sexually abused children. A total of 997 sexually abused children aged 3-14 years old and their mothers were recruited at five specialized intervention centers offering services to sexually abused children and their families. The children were divided into two groups depending on their mothers’ self-reported history of CSA. Mothers completed a series of questionnaires assessing their mental health and children’s functioning. Maternal history of CSA was associated with increased maternal psychological distress, PTSD symptoms, and dissociation following children’s disclosure of CSA. In turn, maternal psychological distress and maternal dissociation were associated with increased child internalizing, externalizing, and dissociation symptoms. Maternal PTSD symptoms were associated with child internalizing symptoms. Maternal mental health difficulties mediated the association between maternal CSA and sexually abused children’s maladaptive outcomes. Clinicians should assess for possible history of CSA in mothers of sexually abused children and determine how best to support them to cope with the aftermaths of their child’s disclosure and with their own traumatic past.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Cita Rosita Sigit Prakoeswa ◽  
Afif Nurul Hidayati ◽  
Made Putri Hendaria ◽  
M. Yulianto Listiawan ◽  
Budi Utomo ◽  
...  

Background: Psoriasis is a skin disease that occurs due to proliferation and differentiation disturbances of the epidermis. This chronic condition often reduces the human quality of life. There have been studies investigating psoriatic patient profiles and treatments, but few are conducted in Surabaya. Hence, those studies cannot fully represent the population demographic in Surabaya. Purpose: To investigate the prevalence of psoriasis vulgaris and the sociodemographic profile of the patients in Dr Soetomo General Academic Hospital. Methods: This was a Retrospective study psoriasis vulgaris patients in January 2016–December 2018. The data were collected by retrieving Electronic Medical Records (EMR) as secondary data. Result: The psoriasis vulgaris prevalence of outpatients was 0.46% and 4.59% in inpatients. Most study subjects were adults aged 18 and above (98.1%), most of the patients were obese (46.3%), the most common provoking factor was focal tooth infection (33.8%) and stress (28.8%), and none reported family history of psoriasis. Conclusion: Some results are similar to other studies conducted in Surabaya, which were the obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) being strong a factor to psoriasis development. However, the result on psoriasis family history was not in line with other studies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 794-799
Author(s):  
Gabriela A. Caixeta ◽  
Emma E. C. Castro ◽  
Agnaldo L. Silva-Filho ◽  
Fernando M. Reis ◽  
José R. Cunha-Melo ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to compare the quality of life (QOL) and mental health (MH) of women surviving at least 2 years after treatment for invasive carcinoma of the cervix by radical hysterectomy (RH), chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, or by surgery followed by adjuvant therapy (RH + chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy). The QOL/MH of a control group of women with no history of malignancy was also assessed for comparison with the treated groups.MethodsThe levels of QOL and MH were assessed in 114 Brazilian women (57 patients with an average of 4 years since treatment completion and 57 control subjects). The 36-item Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, the Life Events Inventory, and a general survey for the assessment of sociodemographic data were applied to each participant of the study.ResultsNo differences were noted among the 3 treatment groups or between these and the control group concerning the levels of QOL (either physical or MH aspects), anxiety, general health, or life events. However, lower levels of anxiety were detected in cancer survivors when compared with the control group (P = 0.035).ConclusionsAfter at least 2 years, the QOL and the MH of Brazilian women treated for invasive carcinoma of the cervix were similar to those of women without malignancy and were not affected by the modality of treatment.


Author(s):  
Matteo Ponzano ◽  
Jenna C. Gibbs ◽  
Jonathan D. Adachi ◽  
Maureen C. Ashe ◽  
Angela M. Cheung ◽  
...  

Fear of falling is a common issue among older adults, which decreases quality of life and leads to an avoidance of activities they are still able to do. The goal of this secondary data analysis was to explore the relationship between fear of falling and exercise self-efficacy in 141 women with at least one nontraumatic Genant Grade 2 vertebral fracture. Fear of falling, exercise self-efficacy, history of falling, the number of falls, the use of assisting devices, and pain at rest or during movement were obtained using medical history and health status questionnaires. There was a negative association between fear of falling and exercise self-efficacy (pseudo R2 = .253; p = .004), which persisted when the analysis was adjusted for history and number of falls, use of assistive devices, and pain at rest (pseudo R2 = .329; p < .0001) or during movement (pseudo R2 = .321; p < .0001). Fear of falling may be negatively associated with exercise self-efficacy in older women with vertebral fracture.


Sexual Abuse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 679-705
Author(s):  
Adam Deming ◽  
Jerry L. Jennings

Despite a continued evolution of the field of sexual abuser treatment toward a distinct professional discipline with clinicians using an increasing variety of treatment approaches, there is no consensus regarding the strength of our various clinical interventions as evidence-based practices (EBPs). This article provides a brief history of the development and goals of EBPs in medicine and mental health, and a review of the earnest efforts of researchers within the field to establish treatment approaches with sexual abusers as evidence-based. An appraisal of the current status of EBP’s with sexual abusers is provided. Although there have been improvements in the methodological quality of treatment outcome research with sexual abusers, divergent opinions about treatment effectiveness remain, and the field has not yet agreed on a system or set of criteria for what constitutes “evidence.” We contend that clinical practice has been influenced as much, or more, by new paradigms that are intuitively meaningful and perceived as needed than it has by what has been determined to be scientifically efficacious. This trend and other processes in our field that seem to be slowing the development of EBPs with sexual abusers are discussed. Recommendations for conducting evidence-based reviews and moving the field of sexual abuser treatment toward the use of a true EBP model are provided.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 916-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ora Nakash ◽  
Michal Cohen ◽  
Maayan Nagar

Although identification of main problems is the foundation for treatment planning, limited research has examined reasons for seeking mental health care. We identified reasons for seeking mental health care as reported by clients and therapists upon initial contact with mental health services. We conducted in-depth interviews with clients and their therapists immediately following the intake. We analyzed 117 therapist and 112 client interviews using thematic analysis. Overall interrater reliability among three raters who coded the interviews was high (kappa = 0.72). Our findings suggest that, overall, clients and therapists report similar main area problems that bring clients to care. Emotional distress and other psychiatric symptoms as well as interpersonal problems were most prevalent. Therapists tended to ignore some problem areas that clients highlighted, including physical problems and socioeconomic strains. Raising awareness to potential gaps in perception of main problems that bring clients to care will promote a shared understanding and improve quality of care.


Author(s):  
Thom Axelsson

Around the year 1900, there was an emerging scientific interest in man and human behaviour. Among other things, this interest involved a concern about the quality of the population, especially regarding children. A whole scientific movement, the Child Study Movement, emerged in both the Uni­ted States and Europe, revolving around this interest in children. Different experts were united in their concern about the state of the population of children and developed a variety of models and methods to improve the characteristics and health of children. One category concerned the experts in particular: the misbehaved. Drawing on a Foucauldian perspective on biopower, this article explores how psychiatry played an important role in sorting and categorizing schoolchildren in the early welfare state during the interwar years. Society demanded new ways of controlling the population, and biopower – which is about administering the population and maximizing vitality – became a central element of this governing. This article is a contribution to the history of biopower, and this topic is discussed with the emergence and establish­ment of child and school psychiatry during 1910–1955 serving as an example. In this article, it is argued that the involvement of psychiatrists occurred in three steps: as a part of creating and defining new categories of “problem children” within the school system, due to influence from the mental health movement with the establishment of advisory clinics and, finally, through hospitalization and specialization in the 1940s.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Lombardo ◽  
Richard Shaw ◽  
Kathleen Sayles ◽  
Dorothea Altschul

Abstract Background: Observe the relationship of anxiety and depression on quality of life outcomes after open and endovascular cerebrovascular procedures. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 349 patients who underwent a procedure for aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation, intraparenchymal hemorrhage, carotid stenosis, acute stroke, and conventional catheter angiogram over three years at a community hospital. We correlated pre-procedural anxiety and depression with Global Physical Health, Global Mental Health, and Modified Rankin Scale scores. We performed univariate and multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses adjusting for past medical history and sociodemographic factors. Results: Anxiety or depression occurred in eighteen percent of patients. Patients with anxiety or depression were more likely to be female (81% vs 60.8%; p=0.002) and younger (54 vs. 59 years old; p=0.025). The groups did not differ in type or urgency of procedure, smoking or history of diabetes, or cardiovascular disease. Patients with anxiety or depression reported lower mental health scores at 30 days (45.1 vs 48.2; p=0.002) post-procedure. In multivariate analyses, anxious or depressed patients had worse mental health scores at 30 days (t=-2.893; p=0.008) than those who did not have a history of anxiety or depression. There was no difference between groups in length of stay, mortality, physical health t-scores, functionality scores, or six month quality of life outcomes. Conclusions: Patients undergoing cerebrovascular procedures who self-reported anxiety or depression showed a significant difference in mental health outcomes at 30 days, but six month mental health and other medical and functional outcomes measures were similar to patients without these diagnoses.


Author(s):  
Courtenay W. Daum

Law enforcement has a lengthy history of policing LGBTQ communities. Throughout the 20th century, police utilized laws prohibiting same-sex sexual conduct to criminalize LGBTQ individuals, and to target public gathering places including gay bars. Sodomy prohibitions were supplemented by mental health diagnoses including assumptions about criminal pathologies among LGBTQ individuals and the government’s fear that LGBTQ individuals’ sexual perversions made them a national security risk to subject LGBTQ communities to extensive policing based on their alleged sexual deviance. The successes of the gay rights movement led the American Psychiatric Association to declassify homosexuality as a mental health disorder in the 1970s, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that prohibitions on sodomy run afoul of the Constitution ended the de jure criminalization of LGBTQ individuals based on their sexual conduct. Today, policing of LGBTQ communities consists of both overpolicing and underenforcement. Law enforcement regularly profiles some facets of LGBTQ communities in order to selectively enforce general criminal prohibitions on public lewdness, solicitation, loitering, and vagrancy—consistent with the goals of “quality of life” policing—on gay men, transwomen, and LGBTQ youth, respectively. The selective enforcement of these laws often targets LGBTQ people of color and other intersectionally identified LGBTQ individuals in order to criminalize their existence based on ongoing stereotypes about sexual deviancy. In addition, police regularly fail to recognize LGBTQ individuals as victims of crimes, with the exception of particularly heinous hate crimes, and do not adequately attend to their needs and/or subject them to secondary victimization. As such, the relationship between many LGBTQ communities and law enforcement continues to be characterized by antagonisms and mistrust.


Author(s):  
Graham Thornicroft ◽  
Vikram Patel

This chapter sets the scene for the book as a whole by defining key terms, giving a brief history of randomized controlled trails (RCTs) in mental health research, explaining why RCTs can produce strong forms of evidence, and by locating trials within the translational research continuum. The authors describe criteria with which to judge the quality of pragmatic RCTs. Finally the authors discuss how the results of trials can be used to inform policy, investment, and service delivery decisions in low and middle income countries.


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