Clinical question
What is the effectiveness of psychological therapies for women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV)?
Bottom line
Evidence showed that for women who experience IPV, psychological therapies probably reduce depression. Longer duration of psychological therapies (≥5 sessions) showed a greater beneficial effect in reducing depression than fewer sessions.
There was also evidence that psychological therapies may reduce anxiety symptoms. However, there was limited available evidence for beneficial effects of therapy in enhancing self‐efficacy. Overall, no evidence was found to show that psychological therapies had a negative or harmful effect.
Caveat
Most trials were conducted in English‐speaking, high‐income countries (eg, US, Australia, UK), which limits applicability to low and middle‐income settings and for non‐English speakers. Participants’ ethnic backgrounds were diverse across the trials. However, the nature of IPV, social and healthcare responses to IPV, as well as the ability to deliver psychological therapies and the receptivity to those therapies differ across countries and limit the generalisability of these findings.
The quality of the evidence for primary outcomes was moderate for depression and low for self‐efficacy. For secondary outcomes, the quality of evidence was mainly low due to risks of bias, inconsistency and imprecision.
Context
IPV against women is prevalent and strongly associated with mental health problems. Women experiencing IPV attend health services frequently for mental health problems. WHO recommends that women who have experienced IPV and have a mental health diagnosis should receive evidence‐based mental health treatments.
Cochrane Systematic Review
Hameed M, et al. Psychological therapies for women who experience intimate partner violence. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2020, Issue 7. Art. No.: CD013017. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD013017.pub2. This review contains 33 trials with a total of 5517 participants.
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