Recent events in the US news has brought the issues surrounding male childhood sexual abuse again to the forefront. The sexual abuse and assault of boys and men occurs in up to 1 in 6 males. Many of the issues are common to all types of  sexual abuse and sexual assault: secrecy and silencing, betrayal by a trusted authority figure, proximal and distal physical effects of abuse, and, in the absence of effective treatment, long-term psychological and psychiatric problems, although how some of these play out may be different in boys and men, due in part to the cultural concomitants of masculine identity. As with other forms of sexual abuse, information and education are often important components of prevention and treatment for all involved, from those at risk to those who have been victimized, to those caring professionally or personally. Available resources have increased over the past 20 years. ISTSS offers the following web links, which, while not meant to be comprehensive, may serve as starting points for lay and professional individuals alike:

http://www.nctsn.org/trauma-types/sexual-abuse: This link provides a gateway to resources of sexual abuse, including information specifically for parents of sexual abuse survivors, along with information about cultural aspects of sexual abuse. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network is a US federally-funded collaborative organization of researchers and community service providers in the area of child trauma. The website as a whole provides comprehensive information about many types of childhood trauma, including assessment measures, general information about types of treatment, etc.

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/CM-FactSheet-a.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pub/PreventingChildAbuse.html:  These links bring the viewer to resources provided by the US Center for Disease Control (CDC). One of the CDC priority areas is in violence prevention. The first of the two links above provides a general fact sheet about child maltreatment. The second link allows the viewer to download for free a 55-page book, Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures.

http://ovc.ncjrs.gov/findvictimservices/:  This link brings the viewer to a website provided by the US Office of Victim of Crime (which is located within the US Department of Justice), which provides a US and international directory of victim services. On the second page of this website, there is the opportunity for the viewer to specify the country of interest, the US state or territory of interest, type of victimization,  and type of agency sought. 

http://rainn.org/get-information/types-of-sexual-assault/male-sexual-assault: This link brings the viewer to an information sheet put together by the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), a privately-funded group. As an organization, RAINN addresses sexual abuse of girls and women as well as boys and men.

http://1in6.org/get-information/: This link serves as a portal for information about male sexual abuse/assault, as provided by the organization 1in6. 

While all of the websites above provide phone numbers for those needing help or to report abuse, the Childhelp® National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-2445) is among the oldest established phonelines.

A recent study of 9/11 responders, including 8,508 police officers and 12,333 other types of responders, indicates that the relationship between exposure and respiratory illness is mediated by PTSD.  The study is published online in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Arieh Shalev, MD and colleagues delivered results from the Jerusalem Trauma Outreach and Prevention Study in the Archives of General Psychiatry this month. In a randomized controlled study, the authors were able to demonstrate that, when provided to recent survivors of traumatic events who met threshold for PTSD, Prolonged Exposure (PE), Cognitive Therapy, and delayed PE all prevented chronic PTSD. Escitalopram (Lexapro) was also tested with this population but there was no visible improvement over placebo. Since prevention of PTSD is such a pressing public health issue, this is an exciting finding for those with PTSD symptoms following a traumatic event.

The events of 9/11 led to increase study and greater understanding of PTSD.  We have learned that certain demographic variables can predict higher rates of PTSD, including low income, immigrant status, being female, and having a history of depression or other mental illness.   Feelings of shame, guilt, and blame can also dramatically increase sensivity to developing PTSD.  Moreover, there are factors that can act as protective agents against PTSD.  The most salient being having a strong support system including family, friends, and community to provide a safe environment to promote healing. 

Currently, the only FDA approved pharmacotherapy for the treatment of PTSD are SRIs.  However, in clinical practice, antipsychotics are commonly prescribed for antidepressant-resistant symptoms of PTSD.  The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of risperidone as an adjunct to treatment for Veterans with chronic, military-related PTSD.  The 6-month randomized controlled trial found no difference between the treatment and controlled groups suggesting that treatment with risperdone did not reduce PTSD symptoms. 

Access the full article in the August issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA. 2011 Aug 3;306(5):493-502). 

A study of 193 male Army soldiers returning from current conflicts found that greater communication with their wives during deployment predicted lower levels of post-deployment PTSD symptoms when marital satisfaction was high.  This was found for delayed types of communication (i.e., letters, care packages, and e-mails) as well as interactive types of communication (i.e., phone calls, instant messaging, instant messaging with video).  However, the interaction between communication frequency and marital satisfaction predicting PTSD symptoms did not reach significance for the interactive communication modality.  

Access the full article in the June issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress. 

Leveraging its members’ expertise in the far-reaching consequences of sexual trauma, ISTSS has provided the United States’ House Foreign Affairs Committee with five recommendations to consider in light of the recent recognition of sexual assault in the Peace Corps. These recommendations, as well as an overview of this critical issue were presented in the form of a written statement on May 11, 2011.

Download the ISTSS statement on sexual assault in the Peace Corps as a pdf document here.

View ISTSS member, Karestan Koenin, Ph.D., and others as they present a moving testimony about this issue on May 11, 2011 about the impact of rape in the Peace Corps. See the video here.

US VA's National Center for PTSD and DoD's National Center for Telehealth & Technology collaborated to create a smartphone application for Veterans and Service Members with PTSD. Development was led by ISTSS Web Editor and Associate Web Editor and a team in Sillicon Valley, CA. Learn more about the app on the NCPTSD website. The app can be downloaded for free from the iTunes App Store. It will be released for Android phones by Summer 2011.

The Asian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies is piloting a program to translate JTS abstracts into Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Check out the October and December 2010 issues of JTS online to see this new feature!

For more information about ASTSS, visit their website.