Citation

Berry OO, Monk C. Lancet Psychiatry 2020; 7(2): 114-116.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY 10032, USA. Electronic address: cem31@columbia.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30530-9

PMID

31981528

Abstract

Intimate partner violence is widespread and prevalent, with the WHO identifying it as a global health problem of epidemic proportions affecting high-income countries and low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) at prevalences ranging from 27·9% to 45·6%.1 Although men also are victims, intimate partner violence is considered gender-based violence owing to differences in the severity, frequency, type, and lifetime impact of intimate partner violence on women. Despite the high prevalence of intimate partner violence in society and the strong, bidirectional association between intimate partner violence and mental health disorders, systematic and large-scale randomised treatment trials that include indices of intimate partner violence are rare, restricting opportunities for the translation of clinical research into evidence-based practice for those exposed to intimate partner violence.

The systematic review and meta-analysis by Roxanne C Keynejad and colleagues2 in The Lancet Psychiatry has many conceptual strengths and innovative aspects that greatly contribute to its public health relevance, high impact, and novelty. The authors focus on psychological treatment studies in LMICs where emerging evidence supports brief interventions for common mental disorders (CMDs).3 This analysis is the first exploration of intimate partner violence as a moderator of psychological treatment effectiveness for CMDs. Previous research on psychological treatment in LMICs has addressed implementation barriers, such as limited resources, task sharing, uptake of a proven intervention, or patient and clinician barriers.4 For mental health disorders, Keynejad and colleagues consider CMDs as a whole as opposed to only one diagnostic classification. There is wide heterogeneity in disorders associated with intimate partner violence, with the most prevalent being depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorders.5 However, intimate partner violence is also associated with subsyndromal symptoms of mental health disorders, such as psychological distress symptoms, which were an outcome in this study ...

Language: en