ABSTRACT
Individuals with eating disorders (EDs) often report a history of early traumatization. Although great attention has been paid to certain types of trauma, such as sexual and emotional abuse, less is known about the occurrence of childhood neglect in individuals with EDs. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to provide an estimate of the prevalence of childhood emotional neglect (EN) and physical neglect (PN) in individuals with EDs. A systematic literature search, a critical appraisal of the collected studies, and a meta-analysis were conducted. An electronic search of EMBASE, PsycINFO, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library from the inception of these databases up to July 2015 was performed. The final meta-analyzed data set included 7 studies focusing on EN in EDs (N = 963) and 6 on PN in EDs (N = 665). Our meta-analytic data showed that among individuals with EDs, the prevalence of childhood EN is 53.3%, whereas 45.4% reported experience of childhood PN. These preliminary findings confirm the high prevalence of childhood EN and PN in ED samples compared to the general population and underline the importance of systematically screening for the presence of neglect as a possible traumatic experience in individuals with EDs, as its presence may have important consequences for the therapeutic approach.
Subject(s)
Child Abuse/psychology , Feeding and Eating Disorders/psychology , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Infant , Infant, NewbornABSTRACT
The administration of antipsychotics in pregnancy is always a problematic situation. The authors discuss a clinical case of a psychotic woman with delusions about her pregnancy and asking for delivery in pre-term, posing at risk herself and the fetus. In these cases, the therapeutic approach must be agreed in light of a genuine informed consent of the patient and when there are no conditions for the exercise of a legally valid informed consent the problem must be addressed to a legal representative of the patient as we did. It is important that the patient appropriately understands all the difficulties which concern her illness and the situation of being pregnant. The risk of malformations and possible fetal damages must be balanced with the need of patient care. We also discuss the differences in kinetics and metabolism of several classes of neuroleptics during pregnancy. We think that, if possible, the patient should be involved in this therapeutic selection.
