The authors describe the prevalence of childhood traumatic experiences among adolescent inpatients. A Childhood Trauma Chart Review Scale (CTCRS) was developed to assess traumatic experiences during childhood and adolescence. The CTCRS was reliably applied to the medical records of 75 adolescent inpatients who had been given structured clinical interviews for DSM-III-R diagnoses at the time of admission. Most subjects (81%) had experienced at least one traumatic event during childhood, with loss of caregiver being the most frequent type of traumatic experience. Many subjects had multiple types of traumatic experiences, during both early and late childhood. A history of childhood trauma was associated with greater functional impairment and higher likelihood of having a personality disorder, but with no difference in Axis I diagnoses.