Mental disorders and intimate partner violence perpetrated by men towards women: A Swedish population-based longitudinal study

by Rongqin Yu, Alejo J. Nevado-Holgado, Yasmina Molero, Brian M. D ’Onofrio, Henrik Larsson, Louise M. Howard, Seena Fazel BackgroundIntimate partner violence (IPV) against women is associated with a wide range of adverse outcomes. Although mental disorders have been linked to an increased risk of perpetrating IPV against women, the direction and magnitude of the association remain uncertain. In a longitudinal design, we examined the association between mental disorders and IPV perpetrated by men towards women in a population-based sample and used sibling comparisons to control for factors shared by siblings, such as genetic and early family environmental factors. Methods and findingsUsing Swedish nationwide registries, we identified men from 9 diagnostic groups over 1998 –2013, with sample sizes ranging from 9,529 with autism to 88,182 with depressive disorder. We matched individuals by age and sex to general population controls (ranging from 186,017 to 1,719,318 controls), and calculated the hazard ratios of IPV against women. We also estimated the hazard ratios of IPV against women in unaffected full siblings (ranging from 4,818 to 37,885 individuals) compared with the population controls. Afterwards, we compared the hazard ratios for individuals with psychiatric diagnoses with those for siblings using the ratio of hazard ratios (RHR). In sensitivity analy ses, we examined the contribution of previous IPV against women and common psychiatric comorbidities, substance us...
Source: PLoS Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Source Type: research