Publications by authors named "Maria A Pico-Alfonso"

There have been many studies on the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on women's health, there being agreement on its detrimental effect. Research has focused mainly on the impact of physical violence on health, with few studies assessing the effect of sexual and psychological violence. Furthermore, there are many differences in the way violence experienced by women is assessed.

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Intimate partner violence (IPV) significantly impacts women mental and physical wellbeing and therefore represents a worldwide public health problem. A clear association between IPV and increased risk to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been documented. However, few studies examined how different features of IPV (physical, psychological, sexual) interact with other traumatic stress experiences (physical, psychological and sexual childhood abuse and adulthood victimization by other/s than the partner) in determining PTSD.

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An important determinant of cardiovascular stress reactivity and morbidity is the individual behavioral strategy of coping with social challenge. This review summarizes the results of a number of studies that we performed in rats, aimed at investigating the relationship between aggression and cardiovascular responsivity under social stress conditions. We show that rats belonging to the 'aggressive tail' of a population are characterized by a higher sympathetic-adrenomedullary activation during social and non-social stress episodes.

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Background: Although intimate partner violence (IPV) has a great impact on women's health, few studies have assessed the consequences on physiologic responses.

Methods: Women abused by their intimate male partners either physically (n = 70) or psychologically (n = 46) were compared with nonabused control women (n = 46). Information about sociodemographic characteristics, smoking, pharmacologic treatment, lifetime history of victimization (childhood and adulthood), and mental health status (depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD) was obtained through structured interviews.

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