Adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse: how are they doing under psychological or psychiatric treatment? A study of the satisfaction of patients with a history of childhood sexual abuse regarding their psychological or psychiatric treatment in the Netherlands.

Childhood sexual abuse can have far-reaching consequences for the victim. In
the past, research reported deficiencies in the treatment of people with a
history of sexual abuse especially when patients had severe problems like CPTSD
and self-injurious and suicidal behavior. In the past decades, there has been
growing attention for childhood sexual abuse, its consequences and evidence
based treatment. Did this attention lead to a more satisfactory treatment?

The objective of this study is to get information about the satisfaction of
people with a history of childhood sexual abuse with their psychological or
psychiatric treatment in the Netherlands at this moment, to get information
about a possible connection between satisfaction with the treatment at the one
hand and symptom severity, self-injurious and suicidal behavior at the other
hand, and, if necessary, to make suggestions for improvement of the treatment.

Participants are being recruited at internet forums, organizations of patients,
and newspapers. There, information is given about the study, and a link to the
questionnaire that is available on the internet.

Before people start the questionnaire, they get information about possible
negative feelings that the questionnaire could give them, an they are asked to
make a decision whether they do or don*t want this. Also, they are told that
they can stop completing the questionnaire at any moment. And they are given an
adress and phonenumber from Stichting Korrelatie; they can contact Stichting
Korrelatie if they feel a need for that. In the questionnaire, there are
questions about symptoms, abuse history and judgment of the treatment.
Completed questionnaires are saved in a datafile without information about the
identity of the participant.

Also, there will be an interview with some participants who want this, about
their experiences with treatment, to a maximum of about 25 interviews (the
first 25 who apply for this). The interviews go on for about an hour,
face-to-face with one of the investigators (Janneke Brederveld) on a location
chosen by the participant. If necessary, the interviewer can refer to a
therapist. The interviews will be recorded and written down. Afterwards,
recordings will be destroyed. Participants can stop the inverwiew at any
moment, and don*t have to give a reason for that. They will get all this
information before the interview.

Asking whether or not a participant has a history of childhood sexual abuse can
be confronting for people having such a history. However, research shows that
the majority of traumatized people participating in studies, do not regret or
negatively evaluate the overall experience or even experience positive feelings
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21681692);
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15633917).