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Eliciting and responding to patient histories of abuse and trauma: challenges for medical education

raumatic experiences such as childhood abuse, family violence, elder abuse and combat T exposure influence both physical and mental health, health-related behaviour, and the ways in which patients interact with medical practitioners. Despite greater knowledge of the pervasive sequelae of psychological trauma, the implications for medical practice and for medical education are not well articulated. Many doctors lack confidence and remain ill-informed or avoidant when dealing with patients’ psychological trauma. The consequences of this include non-recognition of somatisation and of psychiatric disorders, delay in instituting proper treatment, and costs to the patient and health care system of unnecessary investigations and treatments. Here, we discuss why and how we should better train doctors to elicit and respond to patient histories of trauma.