There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Intimate partner violence, which describes physical or sexual assault, or both, of
a spouse or sexual intimate, is a common health-care issue. In this article, I have
reviewed research on the mental and physical health sequelae of such violence. Increased
health problems such as injury, chronic pain, gastrointestinal, and gynaecological
signs including sexually-transmitted diseases, depression, and post-traumatic stress
disorder are well documented by controlled research in abused women in various settings.
Intimate partner violence has been noted in 3-13% of pregnancies in many studies from
around the world, and is associated with detrimental outcomes to mothers and infants.
I recommend increased assessment and interventions for intimate partner violence in
health-care settings.