Characterizing Intimate Partner Violence-Related Head Trauma in Community-Recruited Women

Carrie Esopenko1, Divya Jain, Amelia J Hicks

  • 1Author Affiliations: Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, New York (Dr Esopenko, Dr Jain, Dr Hicks, Ms Carlsson, and Ms Dorman); Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania (Ms Carter, Mr Cwiek, Ms Méndez-Fernández, Ms Rebuck, Dr Hillary, and Dr Marshall); Traumatic Brain Injury and Concussion Center, Department of Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah (Ms Read, Ms Velez, Dr Tate, and Dr Wilde); George E. Wahlen Department of Veteran Affairs Salt Lake City Healthcare System, Salt Lake City, Utah (Ms Read, Dr Tate, and Dr Wilde); cBRAIN, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Bavaria, Germany (Drs Rojczyk and Koerte); Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School, Somerville, Massachusetts (Drs Rojczyk, Koerte, and Lin); German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ), partner site Munich, Munich, Germany (Dr Koerte); Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Lin); Center for Clinical Spectroscopy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Lin); Social Life and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania (Dr Hillary); and Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia (Dr Marshall).

Summary

Most cisgender women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) experience head trauma (HT). Blunt force trauma and strangulation were common IPV-HT mechanisms, but accurate frequency is challenging to determine.