Childhood abuse and intimate partner violence among women with mood disorders

•Higher incidence ofchildhood emotional abuse (one form of childhood abuse) and all forms of Intimate partner violence among women with mood disorders compared to healthy women.•Childhood physical and emotional abuse can predict intimate partner violence in women with mood disorders.•Childhood abuse and Intimate partner violence can have an impact on the outcome of mood disorders. Mild to moderate association between childhood abuse (CA) and intimate partner violence (IPV) is reported among women from community samples. CA and IPV in clinical samples have shown strong association with adult psychopathology. We investigated the association between CA and IPV among women with mood disorders (MD), in comparison with healthy women (HW), at a tertiary mental health centre in India. Women diagnosed with mental health disorders (n=609) and healthy volunteers (n=100), between the ages of 18 to 50 years, were assessed as part of a larger study. For the purpose of this analysis, we have taken a sample of women with MD (n=251) this includes 121 women with unipolar depression, 130 with Bipolar disorder and HW (n=72), with intimate partners. Incidences of childhood emotional abuse (χ2 =4.200, p=