Childhood sexual abuse in patients with severe mental Illness: Demographic, clinical and functional correlates.

Objective: To use data from electronic health records (EHRs) to describe the demographic, clinical and functional correlates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in patients with severe mental illness (SMI), and compare their clinical outcomes (admissions and receipt of antipsychotic medications) to those of patients with no recorded history of CSA.

Methods: We applied a string-matching technique to clinical text records of 7000 patients with SMI (non-organic psychotic disorders or bipolar disorder), identifying 619 (8.8%) patients with a recorded history of CSA.

Investigating the genetic and environmental bases of biases in threat recognition and avoidance in children with anxiety problems.

Background: Adults with anxiety show biased categorization and avoidance of threats. Such biases may emerge through complex interplay between genetics and environments, occurring early in life. Research on threat biases in children has focuses on a restricted range of biases, with insufficient focus on genetic and environmental origins.

Anxiety-related biases in children's avoidant responses to a masked angry face.

While anxious children often show escape and withdrawal behaviours towards threats, few studies have experimentally assessed avoidance. The present study examined whether children with high levels of anxiety showed more avoidant responses to a neutral conditioned cue (CS+) that was paired with an unconditioned threat stimulus (UCS), a masked angry facial expression. Thirty-six 10 and 11 year-olds participated in a task, which involved choosing between two CS card stimuli of different colours to win points.