Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health problem costing $8.3 billion per year with over $6 billion in direct medical and mental health costs alone. Alcohol is present in most incidents of IPV, and contributes to more frequent and severe IPV incidents. These facts, coupled with the fact that there are no effective interventions for IPV, make understanding mechanisms through which alcohol is associated with IPV critical.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health problem for which there are currently no effective treatments. Alcohol use is present in most instances of IPV and is associated with an increase in the frequency and severity of IPV. The investigators believe that alcohol may be related to the increase in frequency and severity of IPV through a process of over-arousal that results from the cortically and psychophysiological arousing effects of alcohol during the ascending limb of intoxication and at peak Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) compounded by the unique behavioral and affective patterns of violent couples. The first aim of the proposal is to determine if increases in arousal after alcohol exposure is potentiated by evocative partner stimuli and is greater for distressed violent (DV) partners than distressed nonviolent (DNV) partners. A second aim is to determine if alcohol induced arousal interferes with DV partners' ability to regulate emotion in response to evocative partner stimuli compared to DNV partners. The proposed study is an experimental comparison of the effects of alcohol on arousal and emotion regulation between 35 DV and 35 DNV partners. One partner from each DV couple will be pseudo-randomly selected and yoked to a DNV partner of the same sex and comparable relationship satisfaction for participant in the experiment. To test the overall hypothesis that over-arousal is a mechanism through which alcohol is associated with increases in the frequency and severity of IPV, the selected partners will participate in a counter-balanced placebo session and an alcohol administration session during which electroencephalography (EEG), psychophysiology and pupillary response measurements of arousal will be collected during an emotion regulation task. The data will be analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA with a between-subjects factor. The investigators expect that DV partners will experience significantly greater arousal than DNV partners during the evocative stimuli condition. The investigators also expect that DV partners will experience greater difficulty regulating emotion during evocative stimuli than DNV partners and that this effect will be compounded during the alcohol administration condition. Findings from this study will provide firm evidence that alcohol is associated with IPV through a mechanism of over-arousal and provide key targets for intervention to prevent future IPV. The data from the current proposal will be used to test biofeedback as an adjunct to a novel behavioral intervention to reduce drinking and increase behavioral flexibility in couples with a history of IPV.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
42
Alcohol beverage measured to have participant achieve a BAC of 0.08%
Placebo beverage measured to mimic the smell and taste of the alcohol beverage.
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
neurophysiological arousal collected via electroencephalography
electroencephalography. Each participant's individual neurophysiological responses will be collected and then aggregated at the conclusion of the study for between-group analyses. Greater alpha and beta frequencies relative to reduced to theta and delta frequencies indicate greater cortical arousal. The experimental conditions of this study will allow us to determine if distressed violent partners experience greater cortical arousal in certain conditions.
Time frame: two years
neurophysiological arousal collected via electrocardiogram
respiratory sinus arrythymia. This is a measure of heart rate variability that is an index of a person's ability to regulate their emotion. The responses on this measure are evaluated against the comparison group. Each participant's individual neurophysiological responses will be collected and then aggregated at the conclusion of the study for between-group analyses.
Time frame: two years
neurophysiological arousal collected via galvanic skin response
galvanic skin response. When people are neurophysiologically aroused, their skin sweats more. This responses on this measures these changes between conditions and groups, and are evaluated against the comparison group. Each participant's individual neurophysiological responses will be collected and then aggregated at the conclusion of the study for between-group analyses.
Time frame: two years
neurophysiological response collected via respiration
respiration. When neurophysiologically aroused people breathe faster. This responses on this measure will are evaluated against the comparison group to determine if the distressed violent group is more neurophysiologically aroused in certain experimental conditions. Each participant's individual neurophysiological responses will be collected and then aggregated at the conclusion of the study for between-group analyses.
Time frame: two years
neurophysiological response collected via eye tracking
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pupillary response. When people are neurophysiologically aroused their pupils dilate. This responses on this measure are evaluated against the comparison group. Each participant's individual neurophysiological responses will be collected and then aggregated at the conclusion of the study for between-group analyses.
Time frame: two years
emotion regulation
This is an experimental task that all participants in both the distressed violent group and the distressed nonviolent group complete. In the emotion regulation task, an comparison of the aggregated primary outcome measures will be compared between groups to determine if distressed violent participants experience greater neurophysiological arousal than distressed nonviolent participants.
Time frame: two years