Some of the studies suggested that internalized symptoms like anxiety and depression are more tractable than externalized symptoms like aggression and drug abuse. Children displaying these externalized symptoms did not seem to improve. The diversity of sexually abused children Confounding factors like poverty and family dysfunction preceding abuse. Sexual abuse is an experience, not a condition. Obviously, children who do not display symptoms before treatment cannot improve as a result of treatment.
Treatment varies from setting to setting and therapist to therapist.
There are no standards. The problem of treatment dropouts Sleeper effects. After 20 years of treating hundreds of thousand of sexually abused children there is little evidence to support the belief that therapy facilitates recovery. Psychiatric advice aside, there may be reason to question traditional wisdom regarding the importance of prompt treatment for many child victims.