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Domestic violence and mental health: a cross-sectional survey of women seeking help from domestic violence support services

BACKGROUND: Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) are associated with increased risk of mental illness, but we know little about the mental health of female DVA survivors seeking support from domestic violence services. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to characterise the demography and mental health of women wh...

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Autores principales: Ferrari, Giulia, Agnew-Davies, Roxane, Bailey, Jayne, Howard, Louise, Howarth, Emma, Peters, Tim J., Sardinha, Lynnmarie, Feder, Gene Solomon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Co-Action Publishing 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4748088/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26860876
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v9.29890
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author Ferrari, Giulia
Agnew-Davies, Roxane
Bailey, Jayne
Howard, Louise
Howarth, Emma
Peters, Tim J.
Sardinha, Lynnmarie
Feder, Gene Solomon
author_facet Ferrari, Giulia
Agnew-Davies, Roxane
Bailey, Jayne
Howard, Louise
Howarth, Emma
Peters, Tim J.
Sardinha, Lynnmarie
Feder, Gene Solomon
author_sort Ferrari, Giulia
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) are associated with increased risk of mental illness, but we know little about the mental health of female DVA survivors seeking support from domestic violence services. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to characterise the demography and mental health of women who access specialist DVA services in the United Kingdom and to investigate associations between severity of abuse and measures of mental health and health state utility, accounting for important confounders and moderators. DESIGN: Baseline data on 260 women enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of a psychological intervention for DVA survivors were analysed. We report the prevalence of and associations between mental health status and severity of abuse at the time of recruitment. We used logistic and normal regression models for binary and continuous outcomes, respectively. The following mental health measures were used: Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure (CORE-OM), Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment, and the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale to measure posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Composite Abuse Scale (CAS) measured abuse. RESULTS: Exposure to DVA was high, with a mean CAS score of 56 (SD 34). The mean CORE-OM score was 18 (SD 8) with 76% above the clinical threshold (95% confidence interval: 70–81%). Depression and anxiety levels were high, with means close to clinical thresholds, and more than three-quarters of respondents recorded PTSD scores above the clinical threshold. Symptoms of mental illness increased stepwise with increasing severity of DVA. CONCLUSIONS: Women DVA survivors who seek support from DVA services have recently experienced high levels of abuse, depression, anxiety, and especially PTSD. Clinicians need to be aware that patients presenting with mental health conditions or symptoms of depression or anxiety may be experiencing or have experienced DVA. The high psychological morbidity in this population means that trauma-informed psychological support is needed for survivors who seek support from DVA services.
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spelling pubmed-47480882016-03-01 Domestic violence and mental health: a cross-sectional survey of women seeking help from domestic violence support services Ferrari, Giulia Agnew-Davies, Roxane Bailey, Jayne Howard, Louise Howarth, Emma Peters, Tim J. Sardinha, Lynnmarie Feder, Gene Solomon Glob Health Action Original Article BACKGROUND: Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) are associated with increased risk of mental illness, but we know little about the mental health of female DVA survivors seeking support from domestic violence services. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to characterise the demography and mental health of women who access specialist DVA services in the United Kingdom and to investigate associations between severity of abuse and measures of mental health and health state utility, accounting for important confounders and moderators. DESIGN: Baseline data on 260 women enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of a psychological intervention for DVA survivors were analysed. We report the prevalence of and associations between mental health status and severity of abuse at the time of recruitment. We used logistic and normal regression models for binary and continuous outcomes, respectively. The following mental health measures were used: Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure (CORE-OM), Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment, and the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale to measure posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Composite Abuse Scale (CAS) measured abuse. RESULTS: Exposure to DVA was high, with a mean CAS score of 56 (SD 34). The mean CORE-OM score was 18 (SD 8) with 76% above the clinical threshold (95% confidence interval: 70–81%). Depression and anxiety levels were high, with means close to clinical thresholds, and more than three-quarters of respondents recorded PTSD scores above the clinical threshold. Symptoms of mental illness increased stepwise with increasing severity of DVA. CONCLUSIONS: Women DVA survivors who seek support from DVA services have recently experienced high levels of abuse, depression, anxiety, and especially PTSD. Clinicians need to be aware that patients presenting with mental health conditions or symptoms of depression or anxiety may be experiencing or have experienced DVA. The high psychological morbidity in this population means that trauma-informed psychological support is needed for survivors who seek support from DVA services. Co-Action Publishing 2016-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4748088/ /pubmed/26860876 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v9.29890 Text en © 2016 Giulia Ferrari et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
spellingShingle Original Article
Ferrari, Giulia
Agnew-Davies, Roxane
Bailey, Jayne
Howard, Louise
Howarth, Emma
Peters, Tim J.
Sardinha, Lynnmarie
Feder, Gene Solomon
Domestic violence and mental health: a cross-sectional survey of women seeking help from domestic violence support services
title Domestic violence and mental health: a cross-sectional survey of women seeking help from domestic violence support services
title_full Domestic violence and mental health: a cross-sectional survey of women seeking help from domestic violence support services
title_fullStr Domestic violence and mental health: a cross-sectional survey of women seeking help from domestic violence support services
title_full_unstemmed Domestic violence and mental health: a cross-sectional survey of women seeking help from domestic violence support services
title_short Domestic violence and mental health: a cross-sectional survey of women seeking help from domestic violence support services
title_sort domestic violence and mental health: a cross-sectional survey of women seeking help from domestic violence support services
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4748088/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26860876
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v9.29890
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