Psychiatric nurses are confronted daily with individuals who are
suffering from the consequences of trauma. Physical and sexual abuse
is associated with acute psychiatric symptomatology in children and
may progress to a spectrum of psychiatric and medical disorders in
adults, ranging from the extreme adaptive reactions seen in multiple
personality disorder and refractory psychosis to intermediate adaptive
reactions present in borderline personality disorder to more delimited
reactions manifest in chronic headaches and unremitting pelvic
pain. Subjects sampled in inpatient, outpatient, psychiatric, medical,
criminal, and community settings describe the link between histories
of widespread abuse and various intractable and common disorders. This
article presents the state-of-the-art knowledge of the long-term
sequelae of childhood physical and sexual abuse by critically
reviewing the initial uncontrolled investigations and mounting
evidence from controlled studies.