Ex post-facto study of long term stress in a sample of adoptees

In this work we study the impact of relinquishment and the adoption process in posttraumatic symptoms in a group of 55 adults that were adopted as children before 1970. The effects of institutionalization, maltreatment, traumatic revelation of the adopted status and stressful life events have also been studied. No significant differences were found between institutionalized and non-institutionalized adoptees in posttraumatic symptomatology. However, adoptees who suffered maltreatment, traumatic revelation and high level of stressful life events scored significantly higher in intrusion and arousal than those adoptees non-maltreated, without traumatic revelation and with low level of stressful life events respectively. Traumatic revelation, alone or in association with maltreatment, seems to play an important role in posttraumatic symptoms in the sample studied.