Gray matter volume differences in intimate partner violence perpetrators and its role in explaining dropout and recidivism.

AIM: Psychological instruments that are employed to adequately explain treatment compliance and recidivism of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators present a limited ability and certain biases. Therefore, it becomes necessary to incorporate new techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to be able to surpass those limitations and measure central nervous system characteristics to explain dropout (premature abandonment of intervention) and recidivism.

METHOD: The main objectives of this study were: 1) to assess whether IPV perpetrators (n = 60) showed differences in terms of their brain's regional gray matter volume (GMV) when compared to a control group of non-violent men (n = 57); 2) to analyze whether the regional GMV of IPV perpetrators before starting a tailored intervention program explain treatment compliance (dropout) and recidivism rate.

RESULTS: IPV perpetrators presented increased GMV in the cerebellum and the occipital, temporal, and subcortical brain regions compared to controls. There were also bilateral differences in the occipital pole and subcortical structures (thalamus, and putamen), with IPV perpetrators presenting reduced GMV in the above-mentioned brain regions compared to controls. Moreover, while a reduced GMV of the left pallidum explained dropout, a considerable number of frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital, subcortical and limbic regions added to dropout to explain recidivism.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that certain brain structures not only distinguished IPV perpetrators from controls but also played a role in explaining dropout and recidivism. Given the multifactorial nature of IPV perpetration, it is crucial to combine neuroimaging techniques with other psychological instruments to effectively create risk profiles of IPV perpetrators.