Victimization and diabetes: an exploratory study.

In recent years, researchers have documented higher rates of health problems in adult survivors of abuse than in the general population. These problems include diffuse soft tissue pain (Boisset-Pioro, Esdaile & Fitzcharles, 1995), irritable bowel syndrome (Leserman, Drossman, Li, Toomey, Nachman & Glogau, 1996), and chronic pelvic pain (Walling, Reiter, O’Hara, Milburn, Lilly & Vincent, 1994). While this past research has done much to increase our understanding, it is somewhat limited. For example, the samples are typically drawn from populations with specific medical problems (e.g., those presenting at a gastroenterology clinic), which influences the choice of illness studied (Laws, 1993).