Schizophrenia and childhood abuse

The idea that childhood abuseis a causal factor in the development of schizophrenia is a relatively old one and was an assumption given theoretical weight through Freudian psychonalysis. Recently a number of studies have been able to demonstrate this link. For example Janssen et al (2004) controlling for both family mental healthcare and history of hallucinations or delusions in first-degree relatives found that people who have been abused as children are nine times more likely than nonabused people to experience clinical psychosis.

Read et al (2008) identified fifty-two inpatient studies and seven outpatient studies which demonstrated between a half and two-thirds of inpatients and severely disturbed outpatients were sexually or physically abused.