Prevalence and predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety among community-dwelling women victim-survivors of intimate partner violence.

PURPOSE: We aimed to take a detailed approach to examine difference in the extent and nature of IPV victimisation and their association with PTSD, depression, and anxiety.

METHODS

100 community-dwelling IPV victim-survivors and 59 controls in Melbourne completed a series of questionnaires on IPV, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), brain injury, resilience, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Prevalence of PTSD, depression, and anxiety in victim-survivors were compared to controls using chi-square tests. Then we used logistic regressions to examine differences in the nature and extent of IPV victimisation and their association with PTSD, depression, and anxiety.

RESULTS

We found an increased prevalence of probable PTSD (52.3% versus 1.7%), depression (47.6% versus 5.1%) and anxiety (53.3% versus 9.5%) in community-dwelling victim-survivors compared to controls. More lifetime IPV experiences, increased number of IPV relationships, less time since the most recent IPV relationship, experiences of sexual IPV, increased ACEs, and lower resilience were factors significantly associated with PTSD, depression, and/or anxiety among victim-survivors.

CONCLUSION

Overall, victim-survivors had an increased prevalence of adverse mental health outcomes. We found that several IPV experiences, ACEs, and resilience were significantly associated with the odds of probable PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Underscoring the complexity of IPV experiences and the need for trauma-informed care.