• Ali Firoozabadi.
• Research Center for Traditional Medicine and History of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
• Arch Iran Med. 2020 Apr 1; 23 (4Suppl1): S6-S8.

BackgroundChildhood trauma exerts a significant effect on psychological life of people. It is a ubiquitous phenomenon. We face a social epidemic with serious consequences that shatter the life of survivors. Victimization in early years of life entraps the individuals in the victim-rescuer-abuser triangle. Many perpetrators and criminals have had history of childhood abuse. The main objective of this study was the assessment of patients with a history of child abuse who behaved in abusive manner in adulthood.MethodsBy reviewing the files of 3694 patients referred to my outpatient private clinic, I tried to gather data to answer the questions related to this study including history of abuse, victimization, substance abuse, and the percent of patients who were involved in abusive behaviors in adulthood.ResultsIn total, 1075 patients reported a history of some abuse during childhood (29.10%). Of them, 19.44% (total = 209, 78 men and 131 women) behaved as an abuser for most of their life. The prevalence of substance abuse in people with history of abuse was 36.6% compared to 28.36% in those without. The prevalence of acting as an abuser and perpetrator in adult life was 27.5%, 19.5%, 18.4% and 11.11% among the divorced, married, single and widowed respectively.ConclusionThis preliminary study showed that a significant number of patients with history of childhood abuse involved in abusive behavior and victimization of others in adulthood. Paying attention to this issue by mental health practitioners and policy makers can prevent the intergenerational transmission of abuse and development of a more peaceful society.© 2020 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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