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Abstract
Battered women endure head injuries that can result in neuropsychological insults; these complications have grave medical, legal, and psychiatric implications. This study investigated the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in battered women and specifically, among African American women. To date there are no published studies that examine the neuropsychological, physical, and psychiatric sequelae of traumatic brain injury in battered women. This study sought to determine the nature of the neuropsychological impact of TBI among self-identified battered women and comparisons were made between non-head injured (NHI) battered women and head injured battered women (HI).
Sixty-four African American women participated in the study. They were recruited from Bay Area shelters, programs for battered women, and the community. Of the 64 subjects, 51 were classified as head injured (HI) and the remaining 13 were non head injured (NHI). Comparison of the HI and NHI groups was complicated by the difficulty in finding battered women without head injuries. The women were between ages 18 and 56. Data was generated from a demographic questionnaire, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III), semi-structured interview, and a series of neuropsychological tests. The neuropsychological tests included the following: Trail Making Test, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), Ruff 2 & 7 Test, Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), Stroop Color and Word Test, Grooved Pegboard, Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), Ruff Figural Fluency Test (RFFT).
The findings supported four of the five main hypotheses. No significant differences were found between HI and NHI groups on neuropsychological test scores. It was found that level of head injury was related to neuropsychological functioning in the area of information processing. Compared to NHI women, those with HI were found to be more anxious, depressed, and more likely to suffer from PTSD. Depression was the most prevalent psychiatric disorder among the HI women. Among all the women, depression was related to deficits in recognition and motor tasks. Finally, additional findings revealed neuropsychological impairment among both groups (HI and NHI) when compared with published norms. Limitations, contributions, and areas for future research are also discussed.
