Gravidade psicopatológica em mulheres vítimas de violência doméstica

objective: to assess the presence of psychopathological symptoms in women victims of domestic violence who seek help at police units offering women's protective services. methods: women aged between 20 and 50 years who sought help at women's protective services complaining of domestic violence were assessed. during the interview, all participants were submitted to assessment using a social indicator report and filled in the following self-report instruments: beck depression inventory, beck anxiety inventory, post-traumatic stress disorder checklist - civilian version, and the peritraumatic dissociative experiences questionnaire (all in brazilian portuguese). cut-off points were established based on instrument validation studies and were used to identify subjects with a high probability of having major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, or high/low peritraumatic dissociation. results: seventeen women with a mean age of 34.7±7.7 years were assessed. average duration of exposure to domestic violence was 9.1±8.7 years. of the total sample, 53% were exposed to excessive violence and 84% received death threats from their partners; 71% of the partners were drug abusers. in addition, 53% of the women reported exposure to domestic violence during childhood. from the total sample, 89% presented a high probability of having major depressive disorder, 94% anxiety disorder, 76% post-traumatic stress disorder, and 88% showed high scores of peritraumatic dissociative experiences. conclusion: victims of violence seeking help at women's protective services showed a high probability of having psychiatric morbidities cognitive dysfunction that prevent these women from interrupting exposure to this specific type of violence.