"Complex" Posttraumatic Stress Disorder/Disorders of Extreme Stress (CP/DES) in Sexually Abused Children: An Exploratory Study

The syndrome of "Complex" Posttraumatic Stress Disorder/Disorders of Extreme Stress (CP/DES) has been proposed to describe symptoms, inadequately characterized by PTSD, reported by adult survivors of repeated interpersonal trauma. This study explores whether CP/DES characterizes the respon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child sexual abuse 2000-05, Vol.8 (4), p.51-71
Main Author: Hall, Darlene Kordich
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Canada
Child abuse & neglect
Child Sexual Abuse
Children
Complex
Disorders
disorders of extreme stress
multiple maltreatment
Post traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD
Sex crimes
Sexually abused young children
Stress
Toronto, Ontario
Victims
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Summary:The syndrome of "Complex" Posttraumatic Stress Disorder/Disorders of Extreme Stress (CP/DES) has been proposed to describe symptoms, inadequately characterized by PTSD, reported by adult survivors of repeated interpersonal trauma. This study explores whether CP/DES characterizes the responses of sexually abused children, some of whom have sustained multiple interpersonal trauma. Three groups of young sexually abused children (i.e., Full-PTSD, Partial-PTSD, Non-PTSD; n = 99) were compared on seven child CP/DES indices. Children with PTSD exhibited more CP/DES symptoms within a greater number of CP/DES categories than Partial- or Non-PTSD groups. The relationship between cumulative trauma and total number of CP/DES symptoms revealed that as the cumulative number of types of trauma increased the number of CP/DES symptoms rose. These results suggest that CP/DES also characterizes sexually abused children, especially those who have been multiply maltreated, and offers a more developmentally-appropriate framework for assessment and treatment than PTSD.
ISSN:1053-8712
1547-0679
DOI:10.1300/J070v08n04_04