The first cases of CTE in victims of domestic violence in Australia and two of just a handful globally. Two women who endured decades of intimate partner violence including dozens of brutal assaults and head injuries before they died have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy —
The grim findings, published today in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, were made by a group of pathologists from several states and territories who teamed up to understand whether the degenerative brain disease found mostly in deceased male football players and boxers is also prevalent among abused women with histories of repetitive head injury.
The women, aged in their 30s and 40s, died from blunt force injuries and impact trauma — one in an alleged assault and the other after being struck by a car. The pathologists examined their brains after reviewing their clinical records and learning they had at least 70 assault-related medical presentations and 35 documented head injuries related to partner violence between them. Both were found to have stage I CTE, the earliest, mildest form of the disease.
Though CTE is likely to be found only in the most extreme examples of domestic violence, experts say the discovery of these new cases underscores the importance of screening victims for the disease at autopsy — and the urgency of supporting women to leave violent relationships. It is also a confronting reminder of the overlooked risks of brain trauma for abused women, a group that has long been neglected in research despite suffering physical abuse and brain injuries at staggering rates.
