Study says words do women physical harm

Item from the Smart Marriages Archive, reproduced in the Divorce Statistics Collectio n

Study says words do women physical harm
by Franci Richardson

Monday, May 15, 2000

Psychological abuse victims endure a lingering physical toll just as
damaging as those endured by repeatedly beaten women, according to a
public health study released yesterday.

The study, conducted over two years by a professor at the University of
South Carolina, says women who endure psychological abuse by an
intimidating and demeaning partner are likely to suffer similar health
problems faced by victims of physical violence.

``I've had terrible tension headaches. I had a lot of stomach distress
that I ignored, and it wasn't until I was practically doubled over in
pain that I listened to it and did something about it,'' said a local
24-year victim of a psychologically abusive marriage, who asked not to be
named.

Researchers interviewed 1,152 female patients, age 18 to 65, at a
Columbia health clinic and found 54 percent had suffered physical or
psychological abuse by an intimate partner at some point in their lives.

Women subjected to psychological abuse were about twice as likely as
non-abused women to report health problems such as chronic pain, sexually
transmitted infections, chronic pelvic pain, spastic colon and urinary
tract infections, according to the study.

``What we found was that women who experienced psychological battering
(but) not physical assault experienced the same types of health
consequences as did women with physical assault,'' said Ann Coker, the
study's author and associate professor of epidemiology.

Carol Lambert, a social worker who has led the popular Recovery Group for
Women with Controlling Partners for eight years in Concord, said
psychological abuse is more insidious than blatant violence, making it
harder to detect and fight.

``She's worn enough to where she no longer trusts her judgment and (ends
up) trusting his judgment more because she no longer trusts herself,''
Lambert said.

``There has been a number of women who have come to the group because
they identified themselves with being controlled, but said, `If he would
only hit me, I could justify leaving.' ''

It wasn't until the local teacher was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer that
she decided to end the daily attacks on the way she looked, kept her
house and approached her career.

Her physical symptoms cleared when her husband left the family home.

``I needed quite a bit of medication, but my ulcer has not returned so it
was definitely related to the stress of the situation I was in,'' she
said yesterday.

The point Coker makes in her study is that psychological abuse needs to
be taken as seriously as the violence women endure.

She also suggests emergency rooms employ a better screening method to
detect those victims. ``High-end emotional abuse does have the same
health consequences that physical partner violence has,'' she said.

But one Bay State critic cautions against blurring the distinction
between physical and psychological abuse.

``(Mental) abuse can have health consequences and clearly stress related
to the abuse can be severe, but it's not the same kind of physical harm
that can be created by a knife wound, or a punch in the teeth, or a
gunshot wound,'' said James Alan Fox, professor of criminal justice at
Northeastern University. ``Let's not see them on the exact same plane.
They're not exactly identical.''

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