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Inquiring Into Our Past: When The Doctor Is A Survivor Of Abuse, Lucy M. Candib, Judith A. Savageau, Linda F. Weinreb, George W. Reed

Judith A. Savageau

BACKGROUND: Health care professionals like other adults have a substantial exposure to childhood and adult victimization, but the prevalence of abuse experiences among practicing family physicians has not been examined. Also unclear is the impact of such personal experiences of abuse on physicians' screening practices for childhood abuse among their patients and the personal and professional barriers to such screening. METHODS: We surveyed Massachusetts family physicians about their screening practices of adult patients for a history of childhood abuse and found that 33.6% had some experience of personal trauma, with 42.4% of women and 24.3% of men reporting some kind …