Female survivors of intimate partner violence and risk of depression, anxiety and serious mental illness

Abstract

Background Internationally, intimate partner violence (IPV) cohorts have demonstrated associations with depression and anxiety. However, this association has not yet been described in a UK population, nor has the association with serious mental illness (SMI). Aims To explore the relationship between IPV exposure and mental illness in a UK population. Method We designed a retrospective cohort study whereby we matched 18 547 women exposed to IPV to 74 188 unexposed women. Outcomes of interest (anxiety, depression and SMI) were identified through clinical codes. Results At baseline, 9174 (49.5%) women in the exposed group had some form of mental illness compared with 17 768 (24.0%) in the unexposed group, described as an adjusted odds ratio of 2.62 (95% CI 2.52–2.72). Excluding those with mental illness at baseline, 1254 exposed women (incidence rate 46.62 per 1000 person-years) went on to present with any type of mental illness compared with 3119 unexposed women (incidence rate 14.93 per 1000 person-years), with an aIRR of 2.77 (95% CI 2.58–2.97). Anxiety (aIRR 1.99, 95% CI 1.80–2.20), depression (aIRR 3.05, 95% CI 2.81–3.31) and SMI (aIRR 3.08, 95% CI 2.19–4.32) were all associated with exposure to IPV. Conclusions IPV remains a significant public health issue in the UK. We have demonstrated the significant recorded mental health burden associated with IPV in primary care, at both baseline and following exposure. Clinicians must be aware of this association to reduce mental illness diagnostic delay and improve management of psychological outcomes in this group of patients. Declaration of interest None.

Domestic violence victims in a hospital setting: prevalence, health impact and patients’ preferences – results from a cross-sectional study

“…Additionally, we observed a significantly increased risk for patients with DV exposure to develop clinically relevant psychological symptoms, with odds ratios ranging from 2.4 for anxiety to 3.7 for the development of PTSD. Thus, this study replicated previous findings linking DV exposure to an increase in trauma-related symptoms, depression and anxiety (Chandan et al, 2019;Shen & Kusunoki, 2019).…”

Exploration of trends in the incidence and prevalence of childhood maltreatment and domestic abuse recording in UK primary care: a retrospective cohort study using ‘the health improvement network’ database

“…The negative downstream social, psychological and physical health effects of childhood maltreatment and domestic abuse bear a substantial societal cost. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Therefore, a public health approach is urgently needed to prevent both the occurrence of childhood maltreatment and domestic abuse as well strengths and limitations of this study ► Primary care data encompass a vast proportion of society, and as current guidance is to ensure identification of domestic abuse and childhood maltreatment by general practitioners, studying the epidemiology within this dataset is important. ► Despite the vast cohort size, our results demonstrate substantial under-recording of childhood maltreatment and domestic abuse.…”

Violence Against Women in Intimate Partner Relationships and Institutional Response to Women’s Needs

“…There is more frequent occurrence of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, over three times more frequent and with more pronounced symptoms in women victims of violence, especially sexual violence. (Campbell, 2002(Campbell, , according to Đikanović, 2006Chandan et al, 2019;Martin & Macy, 2009). A the same time, in psychiatric clinics, more than two-thirds of female patients have had a history of physical and / or sexual violence (Dennis et al, 2009;Mechanic, Weaver, & Resick, 2008a, 2008bWarshaw & Barnes, 2003).…”