Physical and Sexual Abuse in Women Infected With the Human Immunodeficiency Virus

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Abstract
IN THE LAST decade, there has been growing awareness of the health effects of physical and sexual abuse that go beyond the direct trauma. A history of physical or sexual abuse in women is associated with an increased prevalence of somatic symptoms, depression, substance abuse, and chronic pain syndromes.1-12 A study3 of patients at a tertiary referral gastroenterology clinic showed that women who had histories of physical or sexual abuse were more likely to be diagnosed as having functional disorders (irritable bowel syndrome and nonulcer dyspepsia) than those without histories of abuse. Similarly, of patients undergoing diagnostic laparoscopy, those with chronic pelvic pain as the diagnostic issue were more likely to have histories of sexual abuse than patients with other indications for this investigative procedure (eg, infertility), whereas the level of organic disease found in both groups was similar.4