GO TO CMA Home
GO TO Inside CMA
GO TO Advocacy and Communications
GO TO Member Services
GO TO Publications
GO TO Professional Development
GO TO Clinical Resources

GO TO What's New
GO TO Contact CMA
GO TO Web Site Search
GO TO Web Site Map



Canadian Medical Association Journal
April 7'98

Familial abuse: a multifaceted problem

CMAJ 1998;158:867-8

Recognizing and responding to spousal abuse should not be restricted to screening the female partner, as suggested by the editorial and articles in the Dec. 1, 1997, issue of CMAJ.

An abused woman in my practice recently left her husband, after years of counselling and support. A week later her husband arrived at my office. He had eaten little in the previous 7 days, subsisting largely on coffee, rye whisky and cigarettes. He was poorly dressed and barely washed. He had a terrible headache and constant chest pains. He was suicidal.

While in no way condoning the abuse this man had inflicted on his wife, I realized that over the years no one — myself included — had offered him much help in dealing with his lack of self-esteem, alcoholism, and poor communication and homemaking skills. This was an ill man at significant risk of dying.

Men of low socioeconomic status and those with drug or alcohol addiction or a family history of violence and authoritarianism are at risk of becoming abusers, and abusers are not a healthy group, experiencing higher rates of addiction, job loss, incarceration and early death.1,2 In the 16 years I have been in practice here, one woman has been murdered by an abusive partner, but at least 4 abusive men have committed suicide.

There are too few treatment programs for men, and fewer still are the prevention programs for children and adolescent boys. Many abusive men are capable of learning.3 They can be better partners to the women in their lives and better role models for their children. We should be actively identifying and treating the man (as well as the woman) who is, or might become, involved in an abusive relationship. It might just save his life.

Shelagh McRae, MD
Gore Bay Medical Centre
Gore Bay, Ont.
gbmc@onlink.net

References

  1. Lee WV, Weinstein SP. How far have we come? A critical review of the research on men who batter. Recent Dev Alcohol 1997;13:337-56.
  2. Stawar TL. Suicidal and homicidal risk for respondents, petitioners, and family members in an injunction program for domestic violence. Psychol Rep 1996;79:553-4.
  3. Mintz HA, Cornett FW. When your patient is a batterer: What you need to know before treating perpetrators of domestic violence. Postgrad Med 1997;101:219-27.

Comments Send a letter to the editor
Envoyez une lettre à la rédaction