Mental disorders are twice as common among victim-survivors of intimate partner violence

Open a newspaper on any given day and you’re likely to read about yet another case of intimate partner violence – a form of domestic violence between current or former partners.

Less visible is what happens to the victims who survive it.

For them, the mental health consequences can persist long after the relationship ends.

Our new research , published in the Journal of Family Violence, found mental disorders were twice as common among victim-survivors of intimate partner violence.

What we did We analysed data from more than 7,000 Australians who had been in an intimate relationship, drawing on the nationally representative Australian Child Maltreatment Study .

Participants reported whether they had ever experienced three forms of intimate partner violence: physical, sexual and psychological violence (such as emotional or financial abuse).

Participants were also assessed for major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder.

What we found More than half (55.3%) of Australians who had experienced intimate partner violence met criteria for at least one of the four mental disorders, compared with 24.5% who had not.

Each of the four mental disorders was more common among people who had experienced intimate partner violence.

The prevalence of mental disorders was similar across those who had experienced psychological, physical or sexual violence, although many had experienced multiple types of violence.

These findings do not establish that intimate partner violence caused mental disorders.

Participants reported whether they had ever experienced intimate partner violence, while the mental disorders identified were current or lifetime.

This means we can’t determine which came first.

However, other studies have found that mental health problems often emerge after experiencing intimate partner violence.