Authors' objectives:

This aim of this report was to assess whether therapy/counselling/group work is more effective than no treatment for women who are victims of domestic violence.

Authors' recommendations: - We identified one randomised controlled trial (RCT), one pseudo-randomised controlled study, and two comparative studies with historical controls that compared two or more treatments for women who are victims of domestic violence. - The studies assessed the following interventions: counselling, outreach services (counselling plus access to a mentor mother), wallet-sized resource cards, feminist-orientated counselling, and grief-orientated counselling. The outcomes assessed were: reported levels of abuse, use of resources, police use, self-esteem, self-efficacy and attitudes towards feminism. - Three of the four studies reported that the interventions resulted in an increase in positive outcomes. - The studies were of variable quality. The main potentials for bias were lack of randomisation, the intervention and control groups differing at baseline, loss to follow-up and small sample sizes.

Authors' methods: Review

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.med.monash.edu.au/healthservices/cce/evidence/

Year Published: 2001

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Australia

Organisation Name: Centre for Clinical Effectiveness

Contact Address: Monash Institute of Health Services Research, Block E, Monash Medical Centre, Locked Bag 29, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia. Tel: +61 3 9594 7505; Fax: +61 3 9594 7552.

Contact Name: cce@med.monash.edu.au.

Contact Email: cce@med.monash.edu.au.

Copyright: Centre for Clinical Effectiveness (CCE)