Motivational interviewing and intimate partner violence: a randomized trial

To determine if motivational interviewing (MI) improves self-efficacy (primary outcome), depressive symptoms (secondary outcome), and stage-of-readiness-to-change (secondary outcome) among women in abusive relationships.

Randomized controlled trial among women who experienced intimate partner violence in a current relationship over the past 12 months. Subjects were recruited from two family planning clinics (December 2007 to May 2010). The intervention included an initial face-to-face session and three telephone sessions administered 1-, 2-, and 4-months postenrollment, each using MI to identify personal goals. Controls were referred to community-based resources. Outcomes were measured by self-administered questionnaires before randomization and 6 months later. Modified intent-to-treat analyses of completed participants were conducted using multivariate analysis of variance for continuous outcomes and polytomous logistic regression for categorical outcomes.

Three hundred six eligible women were enrolled (recruitment rate = 64%); 204 completed the 6-month follow-up (completion rate = 67%). Depressive symptoms decreased to a greater extent in MI than referral women (P = .07). Self-efficacy and stage-of-readiness-to-change increased more in MI than referral women, but these differences were not statistically significant.

With a lower than projected sample size, our findings did not achieve statistical significance at the 5% level but suggest a beneficial effect of the MI intervention on reducing depressive symptoms.