Father Liable for $400,000 for Emotional Abuse
A Canadian man was ordered to pay $400,000 to his 41 year old daughter for a life time of emotional and physical abuse that amounted to severe mental distress for the woman.
Gory details of emotional and physical abuse amounted to the father attempting to kill his daughter. The woman was also sexually abused by her uncle when she was young. Not surprisingly, the woman suffers from numerous mental and anxiety disorders.
While putting a “dollar amount” on the horrendous suffering this woman has gone through may put this story in the headlines, and help bring awareness to abuse, I wonder if this has truly served justice for the woman. $400,000 seems a measley amount for 20 years of suffering. A few million dollars may be a better beginning (but of course, the father wouldn’t be able to pay that).
It was shameful that the father showed no remorse. It was unforgivable that the mother did nothing to protect her daughter from the abuse.
Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, But Words Can Scar Me For a Very Long Time
Researchers at Florida State University published a study that showed children who were verbally abused grow up to be prone to depression and anxiety. According to the university’s news release, “Invisible scars: Verbal abuse triggers adult anxiety, depression“, adults who were verbally abused had almost twice (1.6 times) the number of depression and anxiety symptoms as those who were not verbally abused, and were twice as likely to have suffered a mood or anxiety disorder during their lifetime.
Dr. Sachs-Ericsson was the principal investigator in the study and said, “We must try to educate parents about the long-term effects of verbal abuse on their children. The old saying about sticks and stones was wrong. Names will forever hurt you.”
The study was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders and represented data collected from over 5000 people ranging from ages 15 to 54. The study also implicated a role in cognitive behavioral therapy as part of treatment, to replace conditioned thought patterns with new thought patterns that are less harmful for a verbally abused person.
I was surprised to read that the researchers were surprised almost 1/3 of the participants reported the abusive behavior to come from parents. Verbal abuse reported included insults, swearing, threats, and spiteful comments or behavior. I wouldn’t be surprisd if these also included inflicting shame on the child and making the child feel worthless or evil - something I’ve experienced growing up.
Over time, the child grows up to internalize these “tapes” and even begin to reinforce the hurtful statements herself. The child then grows up to become hyper self-critical. This is something I’ve also experienced, and can say that at least for me, the long-term consequences of verbal abuse is staggering.
I commend Florida State University researchers for conducting and publishing this study. I hope it helps give a voice to those who had been victimized, and I want this to be a wake-up call to those who still think that words can’t harm a child.
Mental Health Clinical Studies Lacking Key Information
In Psychiatric Times March 2002 Vol. XIX Issue 3, Deborah Lott’s article, “Are Studies Misguiding the Choice of First-Line Treatments?” describes how Boston University’s psychologist Drew Western and colleagues reviewed 34 studies on psychotherapies in peer-reviewed journals, and is now suggesting that some of the first-line treatments may have been based on studies that weren’t as scientifically sound.
The 34 studies Western and colleagues reviewed were published in an 8-year span (1990-1998). These studies included panic disorder (17 studies), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD, 5 studies) and depression (12). Studies that did not meet minimum criteria for randomized control trials were not considered.
Some of the observations by Western and colleagues:
- Long-term follow-up to look at lasting effects of treatment were often missing (beyond, 12, 18, or 24 months)
- Some studies did not report why certain patients were not included (also known as “exclusion rates”)
- Panic disorder treatment showed the most impressive results where 63% of patients showed improvement
- 54% of patients with depression showed improvement but the analysis of existing study data did not show long-term effects
- 52% of generalized anxiety disorder patients showed improvement but no data was published for long-term follow-up
Why does this matter? Well, most physicians base their prescribing and treatment decisions on published studies. When many studies don’t look at long-term effects, what can we say about the effects of certain drugs used in the long term of as mental health treatment?
Of course, we also want to be very cautious of conclusions drawn from “meta-analyses” like this one. One of the drawbacks and criticisms in meta-analyses is that you may be comparing apples and oranges. You can’t pool a collection of studies for depression together and treat them like one clinical study - because there are too many different factors to consider. And conclusions drawn may not be accurate.
One thing that we can be certain though - long-term follow-up is needed in clinical studies. This is the only way we can look at how well some of these treatments work in the long-term.
This discussion is extremely long. Those who are interested can read it on Psychiatric Times.