In light of recent studies indicating a relationship between child abuse and the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, this study investigated the hypotheses that childhood sexual and physical abuse are related to hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder in adults, and that those relationships are greater in those who have suffered abuse during adulthood as well as childhood. In 200 community mental-health-centre clients, the clinically evaluated symptomatology of the 92 clients whose les documented sexual or physical abuse at some point in their lives was compared with that of the 108 for whom no abuse was documented. In the 60 patients for whom child abuse was documented, hallucinations (including all six subtypes), but not delusions, thought disorder or negative symptoms, were signi cantly more common than in the nonabused group. Adult sexual assault was related to hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder. In linear regression analysis, a combination of child abuse and adult abuse predicted hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder. However, child abuse was a signi cant predictor of auditory and tactile hallucinations, even in the absence of adult abuse. Possible psychological and neurobiological pathways from abuse to symptoms are discussed, along with research and clinical implications.Investigating whether child abuse (CA) is related to mental-health problems in adulthood is important theoretically, but also has crucial clinical implications in terms of the accuracy of formulations and the comprehensiveness of treatment planning. The range of adult disorders for which studies seem to indicate that CAor neglect may have a causal role includes: depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual dysfunction, personality disorders, and dissociative disorders (Beitchman et al

The study findings confirmed previous findings of a high frequency of auditory hallucinations, particularly command hallucinations to kill oneself, and paranoid ideation among inpatients with a history of abuse. The hypothesis that the hallucinations of abuse survivors are "pseudohallucinations" was not supported.

Of 20 patients attending a clinic for maintenance therapy of schizophrenia, seven had regular panic attacks, and these were often associated with agoraphobia and social phobia. Similar fears and avoidance in other cases were associated with paranoid ideas and negative symptoms. The relationship of panic to psychotic symptoms varied greatly. In two patients neuroleptics were associated with an increase in panic attacks.

When prerequisites are met and clinical and medicolegal practice is sound and thorough, taking short-term risk, as part of a comprehensive treatment, is a legitimate professional consideration in working with some adults with borderline personality disorder.

The Panic-Associated Symptom Scale (PASS) is presented as a new measurement of the severity of the core symptoms of panic disorder. This first description addresses the rationale for its design and its scoring, score distributions, test-retest reliability, correlations within the PASS and with other scales, principal component structure, and response to drug therapy. Data are presented from a large study group of patients with panic disorder (n = 1168). Problems in measuring panic disorder are discussed.