Temerty Faculty of Medicine writer Jim Oldfield interviewed Prof. Angela Colantonio about brain injury and the ‘shadow pandemic’ of intimate partner violence.

People who live with brain injury from intimate partner violence (IPV) face massive chasms in health care and support systems…[and m]ost of these injuries go unreported. Service providers may not have the training to recognize brain injuries, and survivors themselves are often unaware they have a brain injury – instead attributing symptoms to mental health conditions or personal failure. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened their suffering. Physical abuse has increased, and access to support services has withered.

Read the full story and interview. 

Last month, we shared that Prof. Angela Colantonio and colleague Eve M. Valera are topical editors of the current issue of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation addressing Brain Injury and Intimate Partner Violence (JHTR, January/February 2022 – Volume 37, Issue 1).

States Editor in Chief John D. Corrigan, PhD, ABPP:

Brain injury due to intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs via both traumatic brain injury (TBI) and hypoxic/anoxic brain injury from strangulation. Both are common and their co-occurrence introduces complexity to identification and evaluation of effects. Complexity increases with injury and recovery typically occurring in the context of stressful life events, not unlike combat acquired brain injury. Brain injury due to IPV is an important topic in brain injury rehabilitation.

This issue includes 11 manuscripts, including two by Prof. Colantonio’s students and members of the Acquired Brain Injury Research Lab, and a letter to the editor from Katherine P. Snedaker, Executive Director and Founder of Pink Concussions.