Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Intimate partner violence IPV against women is prevalent and strongly associated with mental health problems. Women experiencing IPV attend health services frequently for mental health problems. However, it is not known if psychological therapies work for women in the context of IPV and whether they cause harm. We also searched international trials registries to identify unpublished or ongoing trials and handsearched selected journals, reference lists of included trials and grey literature.
Psychological therapies included a wide range of interventions that targeted cognition, motivation and behaviour compared with usual care, no treatment, delayed or minimal interventions. Two review authors extracted data and undertook 'Risk of Bias' assessment. There were no trials classified as psychodynamic therapies.
Further, there may be no difference between the number of women who dropped out from the experimental or comparator intervention groups, an indicator of no harm OR 1. Although no trials reported adverse events from psychological therapies or participation in the trial, only one trial measured harm outcomes using a validated scale. There is evidence that for women who experience IPV, psychological therapies probably reduce depression and may reduce anxiety.
Thus, while psychological therapies probably improve emotional health, it is unclear if women's ongoing needs for safety, support and holistic healing from complex trauma are addressed by this approach.
Psychological therapies counselling by trained people may improve women's mental health and enable them to focus on making safety plans, accessing resources for themselves and their children, and ultimately to escape the domestic violence.
