A History of Abuse by Husband and Its Role on Re-hospitalization and Suicide Attempts among Women Admitted to Psychiatric Ward: A Case-control Study

Aim and A significant number of women who succumb to psychiatric illness are the victims of wife battering. No appreciable attempt has been made to further explore this issue in Iranian context. The aim of this study was to examine the association between wife battering and psychiatric hospitalizations and suicide attempts.
Methods and Materials: Ninty-eight women with history of wife battering and equal number of women without such history were randomly selected and assigned into case and control groups from female patients admitted to the psychiatric ward in Khorshid Hospital in Isfahan, Iran, 2015. They were screened for history of physical and non-physical intimate partner abuse by means of the Persian version of Intimate Partner Abuse Scale of Hudson.
Findings: The mean suicide attempts was higher in case group but both groups had equal number of rehsopitalization. No significant association was noted between partner abuse and psychiatric rehsopitalization while age, frequency of suicide attempt and type of psychiatric disorder were the major predictors of psychiatric rehsopitalization.
Report of abuse does not necessarily lead to hospitalization of female psychiatric patients. It seems that age, history of suicidal attempt and current intent to suicide, and the severity of psychiatric illness are the main factors in patient hospitalization. It sounds reasonable that clinical psychiatrist takes the impacts of domestic violence in account while managing female psychiatric patients.