Research at The Royal Cornhill Hospital

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Research at The Royal Cornhill Hospital The
Consequences of Trauma in Early Life For Adult
Mental Health
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• Aims
• The primary aims of the study are
• 1. To determine an accurate estimate of the rate
  of childhood sexual,
• physical and emotional abuse (early trauma)
  amongst clients in contact
• with Mental Health Services in Aberdeen.
• 2. To determine the range of psychological
  distress likely to be
• associated with early trauma in this population.

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• Aims
• Secondary aims
• 1. To estimate the prevalence of personality
  disorder amongst clients
• in Aberdeen and correlate this with early trauma.
• 2. To determine the rate of recording by health
  care professionals in
• Aberdeen of early trauma as a possible factor in
  adult mental illness.

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• Questionnaires
• The Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R) - a
  self-report questionnaire designed to measure
  current psychological distress.
• The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) - a
  self-report questionnaire designed to screen for
  histories of abuse and neglect.
• 3) The Personality Disorder Questionnaire (PDQ-4)
  - a self-report questionnaire designed to screen
  for Personality disorders (PD).

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• The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ)

• The CTQ screens for 5 types of maltreatment
• Emotional Abuse
• Physical Abuse
• Sexual Abuse
• Emotional Neglect
• Physical Neglect

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• The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ)

• Participants respond to a series of questions
  about childhood events, by endorsing one of the
  following options
• Never True 1
• Rarely True 2
• Sometimes True 3
• Often True 4
• Very Often True 5

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• Classification of CTQ Scale Total Scores

No Childhood Trauma
Childhood Trauma
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• Classification of CTQ Scale Total Scores
• In this study participants are considered to have
  suffered
• childhood trauma if they have scored the
  following for each
• category
• Emotional Abuse 13 and above
• Physical Abuse 10 and above
• Sexual Abuse 8 and above
• Emotional Neglect 15 and above
• Physical Neglect 10 and above
• (shaded area of table)

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• PDQ-4
• PDQ-4 is designed to assess 12 personality
  disorders.
• The total PDQ-4 score is an index of overall
  personality disturbance.
• Controls generally score 20 or less.
• Patients in therapy generally score between
  20-30.
• A total score of 30 or more indicates a
  substantial likelihood that the patient has
  significant personality disturbance.
• In this study only participants scoring
  positively for a specific PD and with a total
  score of 30 or above are included in the PD
  group. A participant scoring positively for a
  specific PD but with a total score of less than
  30 has been excluded.

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• SCL-90-R
• The Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R)
  needs all the data to be gathered before analysis
  can begin.

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• Initial Findings
• Interviewed 128 participants.
• CTQ
• 76 of the 128 participants have experienced some
  form of early trauma.
• 49 of the 76 participants who have experience
  early trauma have this recorded in their
  psychiatric medical records.
• PDQ4
• 81 of the 128 participants have significant
  personality disturbance.
• 17 of the 81 participants who have significant
  personality disturbance have a diagnosis of PD.

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• Initial Findings
• Personality Disorder and Early Trauma
• 62 of the 81 participants with significant
  personality disturbance have experienced some
  form of early trauma.