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Hormonal Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators When They Cope with Acute Stress: A Pilot Study

Background: Only a few studies have paid attention to the ability of perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPVAW) against women to cope with acute stress, including hormonal parameters. In fact, previous studies assessed how salivary testosterone (Tsal) and cortisol (Csal) changed after coping...

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Autores principales: Romero-Martínez, Ángel, Blanco-Gandía, Mari-Carmen, Rodriguez-Arias, Marta, Lila, Marisol, Moya-Albiol, Luis
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8198212/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34071628
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115831
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author Romero-Martínez, Ángel
Blanco-Gandía, Mari-Carmen
Rodriguez-Arias, Marta
Lila, Marisol
Moya-Albiol, Luis
author_facet Romero-Martínez, Ángel
Blanco-Gandía, Mari-Carmen
Rodriguez-Arias, Marta
Lila, Marisol
Moya-Albiol, Luis
author_sort Romero-Martínez, Ángel
collection PubMed
description Background: Only a few studies have paid attention to the ability of perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPVAW) against women to cope with acute stress, including hormonal parameters. In fact, previous studies assessed how salivary testosterone (Tsal) and cortisol (Csal) changed after coping with an acute emotional stressor (directly related to IPVAW), and they concluded that an imbalance between the two hormones might be characteristic of these men. Nevertheless, they neglected to examine the role of other hormones, such as salivary oxytocin (OXsal), which also seemed to play an important role in behavioral regulation, and whether this response could be generalized to other types of stress not directly related to IPVAW. Methods: This study aims to assess whether IPVAW perpetrators (n = 19) present differential hormonal (Tsal, Csal, OXsal and their ratios) and psychological state (anxiety, anger, and general affect) responses when coping with an acute cognitive laboratory stressor (a set of neuropsychological tests performed in front of an expert committee) in comparison with non-violent men (n = 16). This quasi-experimental study also assessed whether the psychological state variables drive this different hormonal response. Results: Our results revealed that IPVAW perpetrators had lower Csal and higher Tsal/Csal ratio levels during the post-task period, as well as higher total levels (average) of OXsal than controls. We also found that, only in IPVAW perpetrators, high levels of baseline anxiety and negative affect were related to high rises in Csal during the stress task. Conclusions: These data present a background showing that IPVAW perpetrators and non-violent men cope differently with stress. These findings might help to identify idiosyncratic profiles of IPVAW perpetrators that can then be employed to establish their therapeutic needs. Moreover, we reinforced the importance of combining biological markers with self-reports, thus increasing the reliability of these forensic assessments.
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spelling pubmed-81982122021-06-14 Hormonal Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators When They Cope with Acute Stress: A Pilot Study Romero-Martínez, Ángel Blanco-Gandía, Mari-Carmen Rodriguez-Arias, Marta Lila, Marisol Moya-Albiol, Luis Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Only a few studies have paid attention to the ability of perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPVAW) against women to cope with acute stress, including hormonal parameters. In fact, previous studies assessed how salivary testosterone (Tsal) and cortisol (Csal) changed after coping with an acute emotional stressor (directly related to IPVAW), and they concluded that an imbalance between the two hormones might be characteristic of these men. Nevertheless, they neglected to examine the role of other hormones, such as salivary oxytocin (OXsal), which also seemed to play an important role in behavioral regulation, and whether this response could be generalized to other types of stress not directly related to IPVAW. Methods: This study aims to assess whether IPVAW perpetrators (n = 19) present differential hormonal (Tsal, Csal, OXsal and their ratios) and psychological state (anxiety, anger, and general affect) responses when coping with an acute cognitive laboratory stressor (a set of neuropsychological tests performed in front of an expert committee) in comparison with non-violent men (n = 16). This quasi-experimental study also assessed whether the psychological state variables drive this different hormonal response. Results: Our results revealed that IPVAW perpetrators had lower Csal and higher Tsal/Csal ratio levels during the post-task period, as well as higher total levels (average) of OXsal than controls. We also found that, only in IPVAW perpetrators, high levels of baseline anxiety and negative affect were related to high rises in Csal during the stress task. Conclusions: These data present a background showing that IPVAW perpetrators and non-violent men cope differently with stress. These findings might help to identify idiosyncratic profiles of IPVAW perpetrators that can then be employed to establish their therapeutic needs. Moreover, we reinforced the importance of combining biological markers with self-reports, thus increasing the reliability of these forensic assessments. MDPI 2021-05-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8198212/ /pubmed/34071628 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115831 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Romero-Martínez, Ángel
Blanco-Gandía, Mari-Carmen
Rodriguez-Arias, Marta
Lila, Marisol
Moya-Albiol, Luis
Hormonal Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators When They Cope with Acute Stress: A Pilot Study
title Hormonal Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators When They Cope with Acute Stress: A Pilot Study
title_full Hormonal Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators When They Cope with Acute Stress: A Pilot Study
title_fullStr Hormonal Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators When They Cope with Acute Stress: A Pilot Study
title_full_unstemmed Hormonal Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators When They Cope with Acute Stress: A Pilot Study
title_short Hormonal Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators When They Cope with Acute Stress: A Pilot Study
title_sort hormonal differences in intimate partner violence perpetrators when they cope with acute stress: a pilot study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8198212/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34071628
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115831
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