[Domestic violence and female patients].

OBJECTIVES: 1. To investigate the life-time prevalence of spousal physical abuse, history of childhood physical abuse, and child physical abuse among female outpatients and the relationship between the three; 2. To investigate the characteristics of physical abuse; 3. To investigate the socio-demographic and cultural features of physical abuse. METHOD: Domestic violence and its features were investigated for 3 generations in 100 female psychiatric outpatients using standard semi-structured interviews. SCID-I was used for psychiatric diagnoses. Clinical, socio-demographic, and family structure features were compared in abused and non-abused groups. FINDINGS: Lifetime prevalence of spousal physical abuse was 62%, 63% of the patients were physically abused in their homes during childhood, and 51% reported that they physically abused their children. The spouse-abused and non-abused groups did not differ in education level, occupation, family income, age at marriage, form of marriage, and history of childhood domestic violence. Age, extended family, and an alcohol-consuming husband were significantly correlated with spousal physical abuse. Perpetrating child abuse was significantly correlated with history of childhood physical abuse and spousal physical abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Domestic violence is a common problem among female psychiatric patients. Child abuse, spousal abuse, and history of childhood abuse are correlated.