Depressive symptoms associated with sexual assault

Abstract

The Beck Depression Inventory was used to assess depressive symptoms in 178 sexual assault survivors and 50 control subjects who had never been sexually assaulted. The sexual assault survivors reported significantly more depressive symptoms than the control subjects, and further analyses strongly suggested that the depressive symptoms were caused by the sexual assault. Investigation of the relationships between depression scores and survivor and assault characteristics indicates that the nonspecifics of the assault and the use of a weapon by the assailant were most highly correlated with development of depressive symptoms.