Commentary on Stuartet al. (2013): Domestic violence and interventions to reduce alcohol use

Abstract

[Extract] This study, reported by Gregory Stuart and colleagues, offers empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that perpetrators of domestic violence who receive a brief intervention to address alcohol use in addition to a40-hour group batterer programme will not only consume fewer drinks (and on fewer days) than those who only receive the batterer programme, but will also be less likely to be aggressive and violent [1]. Although these effects fade over time, these findings are significant in the context of an area in which the efficacy of many behaviour change programmes has yet to be demonstrated adequately [2], and in which there is a pressing need to develop more effective interventions [3]. Given that the alcohol intervention utilized in this study was only 90minutes long, there is considerable potential for brief interventions of this type to be integrated into other batterer programmes in ways that place minimal additional demands on both service providers and clients. Brief alcohol interventions have been shown to be consistently effective in other populations [4], and this study provides further evidence that focused intervention around alcohol use is likely to pay dividends in terms of preventing further violence.