Domestic Violence and Suicidal Risk in the Wives of Alcoholics and Non-alcoholics

Women experience some form of domestic violence in their life time. Specifically the wives of alcoholics experience manifolds of physical, psychological and sexual threats and consequently they develop depression, guilt, tension, fear, loss of trust, low self esteem and high suicide risk. The purpose of the study was to assess objectively domestic violence and suicide risk of the wives of alcoholics and nonalcoholics. Retrospective design was used to measure domestic violence and suicide risk of the wives of alcoholics and non-alcoholics by using suitable psychological scales. 32 wives of alcoholic patents and thirty two and non-alcoholics (normal subjects) were the selected for this study. Domestic violence and suicide risk scales were administered to the patients and accompanying persons of other psychiatric disorders and demographic variables such as age, religion, income, education, and occupation were collected from the patients. Percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test were used for analyzing and interpreting the obtained data. Results revealed that the wives of alcoholics and non-alcoholics differed significantly in physical and psychological aspects of domestic violence but they did not differ in sexual aspect and the groups differed significantly in suicide risk. The wives of alcoholics had significantly more domestic violence in physical and psychological aspects and more suicide risk than the wives of nonalcoholics who came for treatment to the hospital. The present findings could help the planners to develop strategy / intervention to reduce the domestic violence and the suicide risk of the wives of alcoholics for better coping and mental health.