Child Abuse Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Child Abuse, including details on family violence, examinations, long-term effects, psychiatrics disorders.

Effects of childhood sexual abuse on neuropsychological and cognitive function in college women.

Navalta CP, Polcari A, Webster DM, Boghossian A, Teicher MH

McLean Hospital, 115 Mill St., Belmont, MA 02478, USA. cnavalta@mclean.harvard.edu

Twenty-six college women with a history of repeated childhood sexual abuse were recruited from the community and compared with 19 healthy female collegiate subjects on neurocognitive measures. Abused subjects showed increased response latency variability and diminished inhibitory capacity during a GO/NO-GO/STOP vigilance task. A strong association was found between duration of abuse and memory impairments. Math Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores were significantly lower in abused subjects when matched against comparison subjects and when compared to their own Verbal SAT scores. Childhood sexual abuse appears to be associated with a constellation of neuropsychological deficiencies even in a group of relatively healthy women.

Published 9 March 2006 in J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci, 18(1): 45-53.
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