Jenkins Natalie D, Ritchie Craig W, Ritchie Karen, Terrera Graciela Muniz, Stewart William
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Department of Medicine, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
BMJ Ment Health. 2025 Jun 9;28(1):e301439. doi: 10.1136/bmjment-2024-301439.
Approximately 30% of women experience intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime, often with traumatic brain injury (TBI) exposure. Nevertheless, there has been limited research exploring lifelong brain health outcomes following IPV with TBI. To address this, we investigated the relationship between IPV, TBI and midlife mental health outcomes within an observational cohort study.
PREVENT Dementia is a cohort study with participants recruited aged 40-59 years for longitudinal measures of brain health. Participants reporting histories of IPV-related physical abuse (IPV-PA) at study recruitment were identified and compared with control participants with no IPV-PA exposure regarding histories of TBI and prevalence of lifetime and ongoing mental health outcomes using standardised assessments.
Among 632 participants, 90 (14%) reported IPV-PA history. Compared with unexposed participants, history of IPV-PA was associated with higher TBI exposure, together with higher lifetime and ongoing diagnoses of depression, anxiety and sleep disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology. Notably, the risk of ongoing and concurrent midlife mental health disorders remained despite IPV-PA exposure having ceased on average 27 years before assessment. History of TBI in individuals with IPV was associated with increased risk of ongoing PTSD symptomology and concurrent mental health outcomes.
Our data confirm high TBI exposure among individuals with a history of IPV-PA, while also demonstrating that this population shows higher rates of ongoing adverse mental health outcomes in midlife, often decades after abuse. This work underlines the prevalence of IPV-PA and the necessity to consider TBI exposure and long-term brain health outcomes among this population.
约30%的女性在其一生中经历过亲密伴侣暴力（IPV），且常伴有创伤性脑损伤（TBI）暴露。然而，关于IPV合并TBI后终身脑健康结局的研究有限。为解决这一问题，我们在一项观察性队列研究中调查了IPV、TBI与中年心理健康结局之间的关系。
预防痴呆是一项队列研究，招募40 - 59岁的参与者进行脑健康纵向测量。在研究招募时报告有IPV相关身体虐待（IPV - PA）病史的参与者被识别出来，并与无IPV - PA暴露的对照参与者就TBI病史以及使用标准化评估的终身和当前心理健康结局患病率进行比较。
在632名参与者中，90名（14%）报告有IPV - PA病史。与未暴露参与者相比，IPV - PA病史与更高的TBI暴露相关，同时与更高的终身和当前抑郁症、焦虑症、睡眠障碍诊断率以及创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状相关。值得注意的是，尽管IPV - PA暴露在评估前平均已停止27年，但中年持续和并发心理健康障碍的风险仍然存在。有IPV的个体中的TBI病史与持续PTSD症状和并发心理健康结局的风险增加相关。
我们的数据证实有IPV - PA病史的个体中TBI暴露率很高，同时也表明该人群在中年时持续出现不良心理健康结局的发生率更高，通常是在虐待发生数十年后。这项工作强调了IPV - PA的普遍性以及考虑该人群中TBI暴露和长期脑健康结局的必要性。
