Childhood trauma and its relation to diagnoses and psychic complaints in patients of an psychosomatic university ambulance

The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was given to 1 439 patients of the outpatient- and consultation/liaison unit of the psychosomatic department of a university hospital. Self-reported emotional, sexual and physical abuse and emotional and physical neglect were related to the mental diagnoses and distress. Patients with childhood trauma (41,4%) reported higher levels of social anxiety, distress and physical complaints than patients without traumatizing childhood experiences. We found relations between emotional abuse and depression and personality disorders, physical abuse and somatoform disorders and sexual abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder. The observed relation between specific dimensions of childhood trauma and psychiatric diagnoses is consistent with reports on other clinical samples.