Verbal abuse: does it lead to mental disorder?

issue of verbal abuse is very common all over the world. There is a wrong notion that this type of abuse is the least harmful and does not carry any disastrous consequences in terms of mental health. This is a wrong belief as it is now being reported more vigorously that such type of abuse is detrimental to mental health. Verbal abuse is in the form of offensive language, usage of swear words, threats, critical comments with harsh tone, shouting, yelling and screaming and passing nasty remarks. It very well fits into the category of emotional torture that has long lasting repercussions. Teicher and his colleagues 1 selected 707 late teens or young adults (aged 18-25) in a study in which they administered the Verbal Abuse Questionnaire which contains 15 items that addresses various types of verbal abuse such as criticizing, belittling, blaming, insulting, demeaning, or ridiculing. Nine percent reported being exposed to such an abuse. It was found that males experienced verbal abuse from male peers and females from female peers. The study participants were asked to complete additional questionnaires like Kellner Symptom Questionnaire, Limbic Symptom Checklist-33 and the Dissociative Experiences Scale and also arranged neuroimaging scans of a subset of their samples. Their findings were: anxiety, depression, anger-hostility, dissociation, drug use and above all there was evidence of damage in corpus callosum. Hence, they concluded that the verbal abuse can cause significant psychological problems in later years and brain damage. Another study 2 mentioned that along with the previous findings of an increase in superior temporal gyrus grey matter volume in children with abuse histories, there was a reduction in fractional anisotropy in the arcuate fasciculus connecting Wernicke's and frontal areas in young adults exposed to 'parental verbal abuse'. Mouton CP 3 and colleagues conducted a study examining the psychological effects of physical and verbal abuse in a cohort of older women. They found the association of poor mental health among women who were exposed to abuse. It has been reported that children who are verbally abused may suffer lasting negative effects in their brain's ability to process language. Their brain scans showed 10% less grey matter in the parts of brain involved in language compared with non-abused adults. 4 Children exposed to verbal abuse mostly from family members tend to develop insecure attachment and loss of trust; hence, they will constantly be trapped into a feeling of …