Psychiatric disorders among wife batterers

Sixty-one male spouse batterers were identified from a population of relatives of treated alcoholics and compared to 319 married or formerly married men without a reported history of battering on lifetime psychiatric diagnoses and antecedent behaviors. Batterers had higher lifetime rates of alcoholism, antisocial personality disorder, and depression than nonbatterers, but not other psychiatric disorders. While batterers and nonbatterers could not be differentiated based on violent behaviors occurring before the age of 15, 95% of batterers reported other fighting as an adult. Batterers also were more likely to have been divorced two or more times and to report repeated infidelity. Implications for treatment of batterers and identifying groups at high risk for battering are discussed.