Group therapy for incarcerated women who experienced interpersonal violence: a pilot study

Eating disorders, trauma, and comorbidity: focus on PTSD

This paper reviews the relationships among eating disorders (EDs), trauma, and comorbid psychiatric disorders, with a particular focus on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There have been a number of significant conclusions in the literature, applicable to clinical practice, which are essential to the understanding of the relationships between EDs and trauma. These are summarized as follows: a) childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a nonspecific risk factor for EDs; b) the spectrum of trauma linked to EDs has been extended from CSA to include a variety of other forms of abuse and neglect; c) trauma is more common in bulimic EDs compared to nonbulimic EDs; d) findings linking EDs with trauma have been extended to children and adolescents with EDs; e) findings linking EDs with trauma have been extended to boys and men with EDs; f) multiple episodes or forms of trauma are associated with EDs; g) trauma is not necessarily associated with greater ED severity; h) trauma is associated with greater comorbidity (including and often mediated by PTSD) in ED subjects; i) partial or subthreshold PTSD may also be a risk factor for BN and bulimic symptoms; and j) the trauma and PTSD or its symptoms must be expressly and satisfactorily addressed in order to facilitate full recovery from the ED and all associated comorbidity.

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among low-income, African American women with a history of intimate partner violence and suicidal behaviors: self-esteem, social support, and religious coping

There is a dearth of research on risk/protective factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among low-income African American women with a history of intimate partner violence (IPV), presenting for suicidal behavior or routine medical care in a large, urban hospital. We examined self-esteem, social support, and religious coping as mediators between experiences of child maltreatment (CM) and IPV and symptoms of PTSD in a sample (N = 134) of low-income African American women. Instruments used included the Index of Spouse Abuse, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Taylor Self-Esteem Inventory, the Multidimensional Profile of Social Support, the Brief Religious Coping Activities Scale, and the Davidson Trauma Scale. Both CM and IPV related positively to PTSD symptoms. Risk and resilience individual difference factors accounted for 18% of the variance in PTSD symptoms over and above IPV and CM, with self-esteem and negative religious coping making unique contributions. Both variables mediated the abuse-PTSD symptom link. In addition, we tested an alternate model in which PTSD symptoms mediated the relationship between abuse and both self-esteem and negative religious coping.