Delaware Pediatrician Charged with Sexual Abuse of More than 100 Child Patients
By Barbara Lock, MDJanuary 11, 2010
A 56 year-old Delaware pediatrician Dr. Earl Bradley is under investigation for the sexual abuse of children in his practice, according to the Wall Street Journal. The record of abuse complaints reportedly spans nearly a decade. While law enforcement officials and the attorney general's office had known of allegations since at least 2005, the state medical board was not notified until 2008, leaving the pediatrician open to practice, and to abuse other children.
When I learned of this news, I felt sick. If proven true, this pediatrician, who has taken an oath do to do no harm, has betrayed the trust of his patients and their families, and may actually have put these children on course for a lifetime of psychiatric and medical disadvantage.
Children who are victims of physical or sexual abuse go on to experience more frequent episodes of subsequent victimization, including physical and sexual abuse, kidnapping or stalking, and exposure to murder or suicide in a friend or family member, according to a cohort study by Widom et al in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect.
Clinicians have observed for years that their patients with so-called somatic complaints, depression, and suicide attempts seemed to be more likely to have been abused as a child than those with other medical problems. These observations have been borne out in the literature.
Adults who had been victims of child sexual abuse are more likely to have frequent, recurrent, and chronic medical complaints, according to a meta analysis by Wegman et al.
Among patients with psychosis, those who had been victims of child sexual abuse were more than 8 times as likely to attempt suicide thant those who had not been abused, according to Robinson et al. Brezo et al report a similar finding: among patients who had thought about suicide, those who had a history of childhood sexual abuse were more likely to attempt suicide than those who had not been abused.
Being a victim of child sexual abuse can change a person's basic personality; compared to adults who had not been victims of child sexual abuse, those who had been abused are more likely to develop borderline personality disorder, according to Widom et al.
Borderline personality disorder is a deep-seated psychiatric disorder, not usually considered reversible, in which persons have a poorly developed sense of self, frequently characterize events and experiences in stark terms of black-and-white or good-and-bad, and have unstable interpersonal relationships. They may have moods that swing between anger and anxiety, frequently feel victimized at what would be considered a minor slight or setback by a more stable person, and are at high risk for depression and suicide.
Perpetrators of child sexual abuse leave a nasty legacy; due to its long term psychiatric and medical sequelae, childhood sexual abuse can be considered a serious public health problem. Punishment of abusers must be considered in the light of sexual abuse's potential lifetime consequences for the victim.
Update February 23, 2009:
The Delaware Attorney General's Office has charged Dr. Earl Bradley with the sexual molestation of 103 child patients. Among the evidence removed from the practice was video of Dr. Bradley screaming at a 2 year old child to perform sex acts on him.
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