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Papers of the Week


2005 Jul


Int Psychiatry


2


9

The confluence of violence towards an intimate partner, substance misuse and mental health: a worldwide problem affecting women.

Abstract

Violence towards an intimate partner, substance misuse and other mental health disorders are problems that tend to cluster together and result in multiple burdens for afflicted individuals (Desjarlais , 1995; Wyshak & Modest, 1996; Wyshak, 2000). They are prevalent not only in high-risk groups but also among members of the general public seeking primary healthcare (Bauer , 2000; World Health Organization, 2001), where their afflictions often go undiagnosed and untreated (Edlund , 2004; Kramer , 2004). Furthermore, violence towards an intimate partner, substance misuse and other mental health disorders involve common symptom pathways, such as psychiatric distress, headache, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal problems and multiple somatic complaints (Berwick , 1991), which suggests that the use of an integrated set of screening instruments may lead to early detection and treatment for patients who are suffering from one or more of these problems.