Child abuse can cause schizophrenia
June 2006Researcher Paul Hammersley of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work has told international conferences in London and Madrid that child abuse can cause schizophrenia.
The groundbreaking theory, co-presented by New Zealand clinical psychologist Dr John Read, has been described as "an earthquake" that will radically change the psychiatric profession.
Hammersley and Read spoke at a public debate at the Institute of Psychiatry in London on 14 June and at the 15th 'ISPS Symposium for the Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia and other Psychoses' in Madrid.
Childhood trauma
They argued that two-thirds of people diagnosed as schizophrenic have suffered physical or sexual abuse, indicating it to be a major, if not the major, cause of the illness. With a connection already proven between the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia, they concluded that many schizophrenic symptoms are actually caused by trauma.Their evidence included 40 studies that revealed sexual or physical abuse in the history of the majority of psychiatric patients, and a review of 13 studies of schizophrenics which identified abuse rates in 51-97%. Psychiatric patients who report having been abused are also much more likely to experience flashbacks and hallucinations or voices, which become part of a schizophrenic experience.
Genes and sociological factors
Genes may still have a role to play, but other evidence cited indicates that no gene has been shown to play a critical role in any mental illness other than Alzheimer’s. Sociological studies have also long shown both that the less well-off are more likely than the rich to suffer schizophrenia, and that urban life increases the risk."We are not returning to the 1960s and making the mistake of blaming families, but professionals have to realise that child abuse was a reality for large numbers of adult sufferers of psychosis," Mr Hammersley said. "We work very closely in collaboration with the Hearing Voices Network, and the experience of hearing voices in one’s head is consistently associated with childhood trauma regardless of diagnosis or genetic pedigree."
Therapy
The pair concluded that if patients believe their illness is an unchangeable 'genetic destiny,' and a physical problem requiring a physical solution, they will readily accept a drug prescription when they actually require other therapy. Worse, those who believe the genetic explanation are less likely to recover, and parents who do so are less supportive of their offspring."We recommend that all patients be asked in detail about whether they have been abused, that anti-psychotic drugs are no longer doled-out automatically and that psychological therapies are offered more often," they said.
