Traumatic brain injury: A hidden consequence for battered women.

Abstract

The inability of substantial numbers of battered women to terminate or extricate themselves from violent relationships is of grave concern to clinical practitioners. Despite professional intervention, many victims of domestic violence return to the batterer and to repetitive battering, demonstrating that, for these women, traditional psychosocial interventions are ineffective. In a sample of 53 battered women, 92% reported having received blows to the head in the course of their battering; 40% reported loss of consciousness. Correlations between frequency of being hit in the head and severity of cognitive symptoms were significant, strongly suggesting that battered women should be routinely screened for traumatic brain injury and postconcussive syndrome. Development of treatment strategies to address the potentially damaging sequelae of head trauma in this population is essential.

Intentional Traumatic Brain Injury in Ontario, Canada

“…A focus on mild injury may include many more women, for instance. Many women experience mild brain injury from domestic violence (Jackson et al, 2002); however, they are not likely to be admitted. Women who are victims of domestic violence may have multiple and cumulative damage to the brain (Corrigan et al,2003), and as such, domestic violence in relation to TBI should be considered an important public health issue.…”

El "perdón" en violencia de género y sus efectos en la salud.

“…Las diferencias en las medias de estos síntomas no eran explicadas por la edad o ninguna de las variables sociodemográficas evaluadas. Estos datos están en consonancia con estudios que concluyen que las mujeres víctimas de violencia de género presentan enfermedades respiratorias y alergias (Coker et al, 2000;Follingstad, 2009), diversas dolencias intestinales (Kendall-Tackett et al, 2003;McCauley et al, 1995), problemas de visión y oído (Heise et al, 1999), dolor de cabeza y migrañas (Jackson et al 2002), dolor cervical crónico, de espalda, pélvico y artritis (Coker et al, 2000).…”

Insight into Traumatic Brain Injury from Intimate Partner Violence: A Grounded Theory Study

“…Estimates range from 60% to 92% of survivors of IPV who receive facial or head injuries, including evidence of multiple strangulation attempts. 8,9 Using the 60% estimation, there are 23,000,000 women in the United States living with a TBI from IPV. That is 85 times more women than Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and 37,000 times more women than NFL players; however, little research exists on TBIs received from episodes of IPV.…”

“…A literature review on violence against women (using search terms domestic violence, strangled, abusive relationship, battered women, spousal abuse, and intimate partner violence) combined with TBI found 15 articles about TBI and IPV, and nine examined head injury in the presence of IPV. 5,9,10,[16][17][18][19][20] References from selected articles were manually retrieved and reviewed. These articles used loss of consciousness, 5,10 blunt head trauma from abuse, 9,18,20 post concussive syndrome, 17 TBI, 16 and strangulation 19 as classification for head injury.…”

“…5,9,10,[16][17][18][19][20] References from selected articles were manually retrieved and reviewed. These articles used loss of consciousness, 5,10 blunt head trauma from abuse, 9,18,20 post concussive syndrome, 17 TBI, 16 and strangulation 19 as classification for head injury.…”