These findings, presented at a symposium during the joint June 2002 Research Society on Alcoholism/International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism meeting in San Francisco, can be found in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER).
"The association between domestic violence and drinking has been recognized for quite some time," said Raul Caetano, professor of epidemiology and assistant dean at The University of Texas School of Public Health, and corresponding author for the ACER manuscript. "Many of those who are involved in IPV are drinking during the event or have been diagnosed as alcoholic. However, there is still discussion about the nature of the link between alcohol and violence. Some think, for example, it is due to the disinhibiting effect of alcohol, which triggers a disinhibition of aggressive tendencies, leading then to aggression and domestic violence. Some think that the link between alcohol and violence is due to their association with a third factor such as a personality disorder."
Understanding the association or link between alcohol and IPV, said Caetano, is fundamental to providing effective prevention and treatment interventions. The symposium also focused on improving research methods and exploring treatment options. Some of the key findings were:
- Alcohol researchers have thus far neglected to focus on agreement between couples who report partner violence and alcohol-related partner violence. New evidence shows that this agreement is low, due to differences in both memory and perception of the dispute. In order to obtain valid data, researchers must develop precise and standardized methods of data collection.
- For couples in which male partners have a fairly recent history of perpetrating partner violence, drinking - particularly heavy drinking - by male partners is a highly significant risk factor for the recurrence of physical aggression. There is an eight times higher probability of domestic violence occurring on days of heavy drinking compared to days when drinking was not heavy.
- Analysis of national data shows that prevalence, incidence, and stability of IPV are higher among blacks and Hispanics than whites. "We need to recognize that IPV is another example of health disparities between whites and ethnic minorities," said Caetano.
- Male-perpetrated IPV appears to decrease following individually based alcoholism treatment. One study found that the proportion of individuals in an alcoholic sample reporting domestic violence was 56 percent in the year before treatment, four times that of the comparison sample (14%). In the year following treatment, that proportion decreased significantly to 25 percent, but still remained higher than the comparison sample.
"The symposium proceedings have multiple applications," said Caetano. "Investigators need to be careful about data collection in this area and make sure that they have information from both members of the couple. We can see that techniques for treatment do exist that are effective in reducing domestic violence in alcoholics and perhaps also for other individuals. It is also important to note that this type of violence seems, unfortunately, to affect minorities more than whites, and resources from prevention and treatment should be distributed in accordance with this higher risk."
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. Co-authors/presenters of the symposium proceedings published in ACER included: John Schafer of Community Health, Administrative & Psychiatric Nursing Department, in the College of Nursing at the University of Cincinnati; William Fals-Stewart of the Research Institute on Addictions at The State University of New York at Buffalo; Timothy O'Farrell of the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry at the VA Boston Healthcare System; and Brenda Miller of the Prevention Research Center, Berkeley. The studies presented in the symposium were funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Alpha Foundation, Old Dominion University, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.