Systematic review on the treatment of emotional abuse victimization in women by an intimate partner

Abstract

Purpose: Emotional partner abuse, often closely intertwined with physical assault, involves persistent emotional mistreatment by an intimate partner. Despite its significance, research specifically focusing on emotional IPV is limited. This study systematically reviews the effectiveness of treatments for women victimized by emotional abuse from an intimate partner. Methods: Following the guidelines outlined in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, we identified four relevant studies published between 2010 and 2019 with interventions designed for survivors of IPV. Results: The total sample size of 857 was included in the current study (I2 = 95%). Our systematic review revealed two studies in perinatal (Zlotnick (Archives of Women's Mental Health, 22, 315-325, 2019); SMD = 7.89 CI: 2.61, 13.17) and postpartum women (Bair-Merritt et al. (Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 164(1), 16-23, 2010); SMD = 11.90 CI: 8.49, 15.31) showing an increase in emotional abuse scores for those receiving the intervention compared to control group, while others indicated either unclear change Tirado-Muñoz et al. (Adicciones, 27(3), 168-178, 2015) 2015; SMD = -1.20 CI: -4.94, 2.54) or a marginal reduction Tiwari et al. (JAMA, 304(5), 536-543, 2010)- Tiwari et al. (International Journal of Nursing Studies, 49(6), 645-655, 2012) SMD = -2.04; CI: -4.08, 0.00) in emotional abuse scores compared to controls. Conclusions: The variability among studies stresses the importance of developing targeted interventions for emotional IPV, as current approaches may inadvertently show less reduction of emotional abuse compared to controls particularly for perinatal and postpartum women.