From the child psychiatry outpatient department of a university
medical center, 64 charts were reviewed in two phases: 29 were
randomly selected from outpatient files, and 35 were examined after
clinicians were asked to directly query sexual abuse. Although the
reported sexual abuse rate for randomly selected charts was quite low
(6.9%), reference to sexual abuse history in charts of children who
were asked about molestation was 4.5 times more frequent (31.4%; 11.5%
of all boys, 50% of all girls). Children with an identified sexual
abuse history reported more psychological symptoms, had made more
suicide attempts in the past, and were more likely than nonabused
children to receive a diagnosis of major depression.