Group Treatment for Spouse Abuse: Are Women With PTSD Appropriate Participants?

• NCJ Number: 173967
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 13 Issue: 1 Dated: March 1998 Pages: 1-20
• Author(s): K A Schlee; R E Heyman; K D O'Leary
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 20 pages
• Grant Number(s): MH4248804
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study evaluates group treatment for abused women diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Abstract

Eighty-four abused women seeking therapy with their husbands were accepted into a group treatment program for spouse abuse. This study evaluated the treatment outcome for those women diagnosed with PTSD (n=27). PTSD diagnosis itself did not differentiate those women who dropped out of treatment. However, avoidance symptomatology significantly differentiated treatment completers from dropouts. Although women with PTSD began treatment in worse condition (lower marital satisfaction, higher depressive symptomatology, greater fear of spouse), their treatment gains paralleled those of women without PTSD. Women with PTSD improved on each outcome variable measured, including reduction in fear of spouse. Women with PTSD also did not differentially drop out of either treatment condition (men's/women's versus conjoint groups), which lends support to the appropriateness of conjoint treatment for spouse abuse. Notes, tables, references