Women and Abuse

What price do abused women pay for their abuse? According to a study of almost 3,500 women, aged 18-64 who were members of a health maintenance organization, 44% of them were victims of violence by one or more past or present intimate partners.

Women who were abused, either physically or mentally, were "four times as likely to have severe depressive symptoms," and twice as likely to have depression. In terms of health, they were three times as likely to have health problems. We know that stress, whether from physical or mental abuse, depletes the immune system, so it is no wonder that their health was affected.

The most common victims were younger women, those with low income, less education, single mothers or who had been victims of abuse as children. The results of the research appear in the June 2006 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Some of the women were currently in a dangerous relationship and were given code sentences to say if their abuser were present during the telephone survey. Just answering the survey could have put any of these women in additional peril.

The researchers suggested that physicians need to begin to find ways to address possible abuse. Unlike child abuse, which must be reported if there's even a suspicion of abuse, abuse of partners is not a mandatory reportable action. Only in the past several decades have we seen changes in both our community police policies and the medical community where a greater sense of awareness has emerged as the result of newspaper reporting of significant cases of abuse.

To my mind, it calls for professionals to formulate a plan of on-going continuing medical education around this issue. Until we begin to be willing to ask, the cries of these women will remain unheard and their needs unaddressed.

Related Topics: Child Sex Abuse Affects Both Genders Long-Term, Bad Marriage Can Make You Sick

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