Childhood physical and sexual abuse in patients with anxiety disorders and in a community sample.

OBJECTIVE

The authors investigated whether histories of childhood physical or sexual abuse were reported more frequently in a clinical sample of patients with anxiety disorders than in a matched community comparison sample.

METHOD

A standardized interview with an extensive series of trauma probes was administered to 125 patients with DSM-IV anxiety disorders (panic disorder, social phobia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder) and to 125 age- and gender-matched subjects drawn from a random community sample.

RESULTS

Childhood physical abuse was higher among both men (15.5%) and women (33.3%) with anxiety disorders than among comparison subjects (8.1%). Childhood sexual abuse was higher among women with anxiety disorders (45.1%) than among comparison women (15.4%) and was higher among women with panic disorder (60.0%) than among women with other anxiety disorders (30.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings confirm the association between anxiety disorders and reported childhood physical and sexual abuse and extend earlier findings by pointing to a particular association between sexual abuse and panic disorder in women.