Research links domestic violence to brain injuries seen in pro sport
New research links domestic violence to lasting brain injuries, with survivors facing memory loss and long-term cognitive problems.
The study found survivors who had repeated head impacts or non-fatal strangulation (choking that reduces oxygen to the brain) were more likely to show behavioural and cognitive changes, including impaired memory, seizures and slurred speech.
The findings mirror what is widely recognised in professional sport, where repeated concussions have been linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease, and other neurodegenerative conditions.
Georgia Symons, a neuroscientist and lead author of the study, said: “Essentially, what we found is that those with six or more brain injuries, head impacts or non-fatal strangulation had worse learning and memory outcomes than those who hadn’t experienced brain injuries from intimate partner violence.”
The research, conducted by Monash University in Australia, compared women who had experienced unsafe relationships with those who had not.
While many participants did not meet the clinical threshold for impairment, they still showed significant difficulties.
“They struggled with memory loss, learning difficulties and cognitive function compared to the other cohort,” Symons said.
The study found that 84.2 per cent of participants who had experienced brain injury in the context of intimate partner violence had suffered both non-fatal strangulation and a mild traumatic brain injury or concussion.
A 2018 study found that 40 per cent of family violence victims presenting to Victorian hospitals over a 10-year period had experienced a brain injury, though researchers warned the figure was likely higher because many survivors do not seek medical care.
In 2024, two Australian women who had endured years of partner abuse were diagnosed with CTE, making them the first cases in the country linked to domestic violence.
Reidar Lystad, a research fellow at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation who has studied sports concussions, said domestic violence survivors were a major group at risk, alongside athletes and military veterans.
“Literature from the sports field tells us that the cumulative impact of repeated trauma is associated with long-term health consequences like neurodegenerative diseases,” Lystad said.
“There’s an increased risk of not just chronic traumatic encephalopathy, but also other forms of dementia.”
Lystad said there were growing concerns that the threshold for long-term brain damage may be lower than previously thought, but remains difficult to measure.
“If domestic violence is being perpetrated over time, that becomes an increased risk for the development of neurodegenerative disease,” he said.
“For those patients, referral to specialists with expertise in brain injury is critical. It’s not an issue that’s unique to the sporting population any more.”
Phillip Ripper, chief executive of violence prevention organisation No To Violence, said women subjected to repeated concussions and strangulation through family violence were far less likely to be identified, diagnosed or supported than athletes, despite often experiencing more severe and repeated trauma.
“There is an enormous gap in awareness and understanding of the severe, often lifelong impacts these injuries have on victim-survivors’ memory, cognition, wellbeing and capacity to rebuild their lives,” Ripper said.
“Non-fatal strangulation in particular must be recognised as a critical warning sign.”
Ripper said these injuries were preventable if violence was stopped at its source.
“Preventing these devastating harms requires governments and communities to act decisively – identifying men’s use of violence earlier, responding consistently, and holding men accountable before patterns of coercive control escalate into repeated brain injury and life-threatening harm.”
