Year: 1994 Source: Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, v.33, no.8, (Oct. 1994), p.1208-09 SIEC No: 19940748

In this letter, Krugman questions why Jacobsen et al (1994) did not discuss the importance of directly asking suicidal prepubertal children about child abuse. He states that the avoidance of such questions borders on malpractice. The reply of Jacobsen & colleagues points out that the list of questions they suggested for clinicians who were doing assessments was not exhaustive. They also discuss some studies that have shown that indirect questions often gave more complete accounts of the abuse.