The Violence Against Women and Mental Health: Assessing the Severity and Its Psychiatric Implications

Abstract

Background: Violence against women is a significant public health issue and a breach of human rights, particularly infringing on women’s rights to life. The United Nations defines violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that results in physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. Estimates published by WHO indicate that globally, 1 in 3 (30%) of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. The national statistics using a modified Conflict Tactics Scale estimate that 40% of women face lifetime domestic violence in India. Violence significantly impacts women’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health. In terms of mental health, violence is associated with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, sleep disturbances, eating disorders, and suicide attempts, particularly when experienced during childhood.

Aim: To assess the severity of violence among women seeking mental health care and to assess the relationship between different mental health conditions and exposure to violence

Method: Using the convenience sampling, participants were selected in a tertiary care hospital. Assessment tools include Severity of Violence Against Women Scale and MINI Plus. SPSS v20 was used to analyze the data. The objectives were to assess the severity of violence among women seeking mental health care and to assess the relationship between different mental health conditions and exposure to violence.

Results: Among 154 participants, the most prevalent psychiatric morbidities were Suicidality (41.6%), Dysthymia (14.3%), and Other specified depressive disorder (12.3%). Mild violence was reported by 37.7% of participants, moderate violence by 35.1%, and sexual aggression or serious violence by 7.8%. There were no significant associations were found between violence severity and age, occupation, marital status, religion, or socio-economic status (p > 0.05). From our study no correlation was found between severity of violence and psychiatric morbidity (p = 0.112).

Conclusion: Most women in our study had a lifetime history of exposure to mild to moderate violence. There was no association between the severity of violence and the presence of psychiatry morbidity. There is a need to explore other factors that mediate the link between exposure to violence and psychiatric morbidity among women.