To the Editor: In discussing interventions for intimate partner violence, Drs Rhodes and Levinson1 presented 3 cases. In Case 1 the intervention is that an emergency physician informs the primary care physician about a patient's history. In Case 2, the patient is referred to a social worker who encourages the woman to talk to her extended family and refers her to a support group. In Case 3, the physician prescribes a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, refers the patient to a neck and back pain specialist, documents the abusive situation, and refers the patient to a community mental health program.
The accompanying article by Ms Wathen and Dr MacMillan2 affirms "that there is a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of interventions for women experiencing abuse and that potential harms of identifying and treating abused women are not well-evaluated."
Passionate entwined idiosyncrasies are often central to a marriage or other intimate partnership. These things are older than medicine. I think physicians should be very careful about medicalizing any one strand of such a profound and complex relationship. Some of this is none of our business. Preventing harm to patients is of course a central mission. But physicians should have good data that we can help before we break into a marriage, discover personal information from one of the partners, document this, and then make referrals to straighten the relationship out.
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
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