Post-traumatic stress disorder in women: Diagnosis and treatment of battered woman syndrome (original) (raw)

1991, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training

Women victims of marital abuse suffer many symptoms ofPTSD. This article discusses issues of diagnosis, evaluation, interviewing, treatment, and legal implications of the battered woman syndrome. The debate around the addition of the newly proposed diagnostic categories to the personality disorder section of the DSM-III-R (APA, 1987) began in 1985 (cf. Widiger, 1987) and has continued to date, especially concerning battered women syndrome. The debate itself has focused attention on the inadequacy of the current mental health classification system for women victims of violence even though the situationally based anxiety disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (APA, 1987, pp. 247-251) comes closest to describing battered woman syndrome, the group of psychological symptoms often observed after a woman has repeatedly experienced physical, sexual and/or serious psychological abuse. Like in other subclassifications of PTSD that measure dysfunction following repeated man-made trauma, such as rape trauma syndrome, battered child syndrome, child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome, and combat war syndrome, there are different symptom patterns observable in addition to the core group of arousal, avoidance, and intrusive cognitive memories present in a PTSD. The addition in the DSM-III-R Appendix A (APA), 1987, pp. 371-374) of Self Defeating Personality Disorder, which is the new name given to the old concept of masochistic personality disorder, has caused it to become one of the most