Every 10th injury to children through abuse

Every tenth injury in children is due to abuse

13/11/2013

Every tenth injury to children is due to abuse or abuse. The medical director at the Olga hospital in Stuttgart, Andreas Oberle, points this out to the news agency „dpa“ out. Exact numbers do not exist. Even more often than physical abuse doctors would find neglect in children, said Oberle.

Abuse and neglect are often a result of overworking
Abuse and neglect of children are not uncommon. „We assume that ten percent of the children who come to us with injuries were abused“, reports the pediatrician. Especially for physicians who are not regularly confronted with such cases, it is a challenge to distinguish an accident from a physical abuse. For this training was necessary. An important contribution could be the opening of the „Competence Center for Child Protection in Medicine“ in Ulm.

Doctors should make sure not to leave battered children alone with their problems. „In such a situation, it would be too little to just look for an injury to heal well again“, explains Oberle. „Parents who mistreat their children are not despicable criminals, but quite often families that are simply overwhelmed.“ Often, they only needed people to contact for advice and support. The pediatrician makes it clear how important it is to create networks that doctors could turn to if they suspect something. These could be, for example, child protection teams in hospitals or contact persons at the youth welfare office.

As Oberle reports, doctors would be confronted with neglected rather than physically abused children far more frequently. „If doctors notice that children are not well-groomed, run around in the winter with winter shoes or have no age-appropriate game material, this can be an indication that the parents do not give the child what it needs in his age.“ Also for it lack of auxiliary offers.

Sexual abuse of children, on the other hand, is something completely different. The perpetrators are not overwhelmed parents but adults who use their power to satisfy their sexual needs.

Maltreatment can lead to brain damage
According to a study by US scientists, childhood abuse is also detectable in adulthood. For their investigation, Martin Teicher's team from Belmont, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, evaluated brain enrollments from the study participants. It showed that those who were affected by maltreatment in childhood had a less developed hippocampus area compared to others. This part of the brain is responsible for emotions, among other things.

Child physical and mental abuse can cause severe trauma. In order to cope with this, a long outpatient and inpatient psychotherapy is often necessary. Some sufferers also take medicines to cope with their everyday lives. As the study of the scientists shows, the maltreatment can cause developmental disturbances in the brain of the patient. Teicher and his team suspect that sufferers are more susceptible to mental illness for this reason. (Ag)