مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد خشونت علیه زنان و اختلال روانی – NCBI 2018

Violence against women means “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life” [1]. It affects 15–75% of women across the globe and is a significant threat to their health, well-being, and rights [2–4]. A multicenter study in 11 countries in the world has found that around 15–71% of women faced physical and sexual violence and 20–75% emotional abuse in their lifetime. In Bangladesh, between 50 and 70% of women face some form of violence, with the prevalence varying across different settings [5, 6]. Violence against women is associated with a number of mental health problems including mood, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and somatoform disorders [7–10]. World Health Organization (WHO), in a mixed method research, reported violence as an important factor of poor mental health in women across countries including Bangladesh [5]. García-Moreno et al. in the multicenter study referred to earlier mostly focused on intimate partner violence and its impact on mental health, reported as emotional distress as a part of different dimension of health. They did not address violence committed by others nor did they specifically look into its relationship with mental disorders. A quantitative study in nine lowand middle-income countries found a link between violence with suicides [9]; up to 90% of people may have some form of mental disorder at the time of suicide. Studies across India and Pakistan found an association between domestic or intimate partner violence, and poor mental health including suicidal ideation [11–13]. Like most others, the studies were quantitative and related the symptoms of poor mental health, rather than examining specific mental disorders. In a quantitative study in Bangladesh, Naved and Akhtar found that suicidal ideation was more common among women facing physical or emotional violence compared to women who were not facing such violence [14]. However, they also did not specifically focus on different types of mental disorders as a consequence of violence against women nor did they explore the experience of women facing such violence and how it was associated with different types of mental disorders. Mental disorders are multi-factorial. Several factors often interact in a complex way to cause and or maintain mental disorders; some related to gene and environments predispose an individual in early childhood while others may occur before the disease to precipitate it. Some factors may maintain it. A number of researchers underscored the importance of understanding how violence against women affects their mental health [2, 15]. The exploration is important because the nature and impact of violence against women vary across cultures. For example, two thirds of women physically abused in Bangladesh did not tell anybody about the violence while about 80% in Brazil and Namibia city did so [5]. The lack of sharing may result in a higher magnitude of mental disorders in women in Bangladesh. In a study carried out in an urban community, around half of adult women reported to have mental disorders [16].