Physical Abuse in Relationships Due to Drugs and Alcohol
Family violence has become a significant public health issue in the United States (Wood pp). Many believe the reason for the problem of domestic violence within the United States is because the U.S. has the highest substance abuse rate of any industrialized nation (Drug pp). There have been numerous studies to support a relationship between substance abuse and domestic violence.
According to many researchers and physicians, such as Cathy L. Baldwin-Johnson, who spoke before the annual meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians, partner violence is the most common form of domestic violence, and occurs within all ethnic groups, economic classes, religions, and age groups, as well as in homosexual relationships (Wood pp). Ninety-five percent of all victims of violence are women, and approximately half of all women in the United States will be abused by a current or former partner sometime during their lifetime (Wood pp). Up to fifty percent of all female homicide victims are murdered by their male partners, compared with twelve percent of men killed by their partners (Wood pp). Moreover, assault during pregnancy is a huge problem, in fact, homicide is the leading cause of mortality in pregnant women (Wood pp). In other words, there are more deaths from domestic violence than from any medical complication of pregnancy (Wood pp).
Domestic violence usually begins as verbal or emotional abuse with the intent to intimidate and isolate, and then escalates to physical abuse, which increases in frequency and severity over time (Wood pp). According to Dr. Baldwin-Johnson, "Almost sixty percent of rapes of women over 30 are related to their battering relationship with their partner" (Wood pp). Fifty percent of victims report being threatened by a weapon, and that the rape occurred after a beating, while forty-four percent reported being hit, kicked, or burned during sex, and twenty-nine percent reported have an object forcibly inserted in the vagina or anus (Wood pp). Sexually abused domestic violence victims are at greater risk for death, says Baldwin-Johnson (Wood pp). Moreover, victims of domestic violence are at greater risk for mental health problems, such as panic attacks, eating disorders, depression, substance abuse, posttraumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, headaches, and gastrointestinal complaints (Wood pp). Furthermore, abused women are at high risk for suicide due to feelings of hopelessness and self-induced or attempted abortion (Wood pp).
Prenatal care-based studies report that from 4 -- 26% of patients are violence victims before pregnancy, whereas 1 -- 17% are violence victims during pregnancy (Martin pp). A review of studies that examined the prevalence of violence during pregnancy reported that most of the prevalence estimates ranged between 4 and 8% (Martin pp). Several studies have found that women who have been victimized either before or during pregnancy are more likely than other women to drink alcohol or use illicit drugs before and/or during pregnancy (Martin pp). Studies indicate that, during the year before pregnancy, women who were physically assaulted by their partners were somewhat more likely to drink alcohol compared with women who did not experience this type of violence, however, during pregnancy, women who were victims of violence were more likely to drink alcohol (Martin pp). In other words, women's alcohol use before pregnancy was somewhat more likely among those physically assaulted before pregnancy but was not more likely among those who experienced psychological aggression or sexual coercion before pregnancy (Martin pp). Alcohol use during pregnancy was more likely if the women experienced any of the types of violence during pregnancy, including psychological aggression (23% of the victims drank alcohol compared with none of the women who did not experience this violence), physical assault and sexual coercion (Martin pp). The study revealed that among the women who drank alcohol during the year before pregnancy, frequent drinking was somewhat more common among those who experience each type of violence compared to women who did not experience such violence (Martin pp).
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