Does childhood sexual abuse cause adult psychiatric disorders? Essentials of methodology

Abstract

Numerous recent studies have suggested a possible link between childhood sexual abuse and adult psychiatric disorders. However, these studies must be interpreted with careful attention to the problems of selection bias, information bias, and the effects of confounding variables. To our knowledge, no available studies in the scientific literature have adequately controlled for all three of these sources of error. Indeed, many published studies are so vulnerable to these forms of error that they are rendered almost valueless. Therefore at present we cannot reasonably conclude whether childhood sexual abuse is, or is not, an etiologic factor in adult psychiatric disorders.