The Multiple Linkages Between Childhood Sexual Abuse, Adult Alcoholism, and Traumatic Brain Injury in Women

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the relationships between women, traumatic brain injury (TBI), alcohol dependency, and childhood sexual abuse. Alcohol use has increasingly been implicated as a direct cause of TBI occurrence. Because most TBI rehabilitation programs have been developed tor a male population, however, the unique relationship between women with TBI and alcohol dependency has largely been unexamined. Women with alcohol-related difficulties are highly likely to report histories of childhood sexual abuse and adult revictimization experiences. The experience of childhood sexual abuse, commonly found in the histories of women with alcohol problems, may predispose women to the occurrence of head injuries sustained through alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents and/or physical violence perpetrated by chemically dependent partners. This paper explores the psychosocial factors that may lead to head injury in women with alcohol and abuse histories. Suggestions for occupational therapy practice that address the psychosocial sequelae commonly resulting from the concomitant effeels of alcohol abuse, childhood victimization, and neurologic impairment in Women are offered.