Domestic violence against women in Taiwan: their life-threatening situations, post-traumatic responses, and psycho-physiological symptoms. An interview study

The purpose of this study is to examine the following three aspects of domestic violence by men against women, and to look for possible correlations between them: life-threatening situations, post-traumatic responses, and psycho-physiological symptoms. A survey interview was used to collect data on abused women recruited from the Kaohsiung area in southern Taiwan. 109 out of 127 subjects completed the structured questionnaires. The findings showed that the medium- and high-risk groups of life-threatening situations accounted for 82.6% of all subjects, and 93.6% of all subjects were in a high score group of post-traumatic responses. Among the 10 symptom dimensions of psycho-physiological symptoms, anxiety had the highest standardized mean score, followed by obsession, depression, and somatization. The life-threatening situations had significant positive correlation with the overall post-traumatic responses, the responses of intrusion, and the general severity index (GSI). Overall post-traumatic responses, intrusion, and avoidance were all positively associated with GSI. This study provides evidence to healthcare professionals that they should not only treat the physical injuries of abused women, but must also learn how to assess and adequately attend to their mental health problems.