Weapons worsen psychological harm in survivors of intimate partner violence: study

2026-09-29T07:00:00+10:00

Photo: Getty Images

Michelle Smith,

New research from UNSW Sydney has linked intimate partner violence involving guns and other weapons with increased PTSD and panic disorder symptoms in women.

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The use or threat of guns and other weapons in intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with higher levels of panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in women, new research from UNSW Sydney has found.

The findings, published today in JAMA Network Open, show these increases in symptom severity were specifically attributable to the actual or threatened use of guns and other weapons, and were independent of other forms of physical IPV, psychological abuse, previous IPV exposure, and women’s prior mental health symptoms.

“While discussions about guns and other weapons understandably focus on homicide, physical injury and mass-casualty events, our findings point to another, less visible dimension of harm, which is that the fear, threat and coercive control associated with knowing their partner has access to a weapon can have significant mental health consequences over the course of women’s lives,” said study lead Professor Susan Rees, UNSW Medicine & Health.

The psychological impacts of a ‘persistent instrument of intimidation’

The study analysed data from 1114 women from the Women Aware with Their Children (WATCH) cohort – a landmark research initiative investigating the relationship between intimate partner violence and mental health conditions in women.

The group was made up of Australian women, including those born here and those who arrived from conflict-affected countries, who were recruited from public antenatal clinics in Sydney and Melbourne between January 2015 and March 2016.

The women were followed up every 12-18 months for up to 10 years, with comprehensive measures of intimate partner violence tracked. This included whether they had been threatened or attacked with a knife, gun or other type of weapon by a current or former partner.

“From a psychological perspective, the inherent lethality of a gun, knife, or other deadly weapon, combined with the minimal effort required to inflict fatal harm, means that that even its display or use as a threat can establish a powerful regime of entrapment and coercive control,” said Prof. Rees.

“Such dynamics can entrench fear, restrict autonomy, and enable patterns of chronic and escalating abuse.

“In this context, the gun or other weapon functions as a persistent instrument of intimidation, even when physical injury does not occur, by constraining everyday autonomy and heightening anticipatory fear,” Prof. Rees said.

Through our analysis we can see an actual temporal ordering that shows being subjected to intimate partner violence with a gun or other weapon led to an immediate increase in panic disorder and PTSD symptomology.

Dr Tyson Whitten

A ‘clinically meaningful' increase in panic disorder and PTSD severity

In the study cohort, 43 women (3.9%) reported being threatened or harmed with a gun or other weapon by their partner, 171 (15.4%) reported physical violence without a weapon and 726 (65.2%) reported psychological abuse.

Across the observation period, before any statistical analysis of causal attribution, 72.1% of the women who reported being threatened or harmed with a gun or other weapon by their partner had symptoms of panic disorder, and 62.8% had symptoms of PTSD.

Among women who had experienced intimate partner violence that didn’t involve a weapon, 45.2% had symptoms of panic disorder and 39.2% had symptoms of PTSD.

Dr Tyson Whitten, first author and Senior Research Fellow at UNSW Sydney, said previous research had shown an association between intimate partner violence and panic disorder or PTSD.

“What is unique about this study is that we’ve been able to disentangle the contribution of weapon-involved intimate partner violence to these psychological disorders from the effects of other forms of IPV, which often occur in complex and overlapping patterns,” said Dr Whitten.

“Through our analysis, we can see an actual temporal ordering that shows being subjected to intimate partner violence with a gun or other weapon led to an immediate increase in panic disorder and PTSD symptomology.”

Detailed longitudinal analyses of the data showed that women who had experienced actual or threatened intimate partner violence involving a gun or other weapon reported, on average, 0.6 more panic disorder symptoms and 0.7 more PTSD symptoms than women exposed to intimate partner violence without a weapon.

When looking at symptom levels before and after experiencing actual or threatened intimate partner violence involving a gun or other weapon, the study found this transition was associated with an average increase of 1.1 panic disorder and PTSD symptoms relative to pre-exposure levels.

Prof. Susan Rees said “taken together, these findings suggest that the association is not explained solely by differences between women who do and do not experience severe intimate partner violence. Deterioration in mental health – at levels associated with substantial distress and disruption to the ability to function in daily life – were also observed within the same women when weapon-involved IPV emerged over time.”

The researchers also investigated whether the threat or use of a weapon in intimate partner violence was associated with increased symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder and Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder but did not find this to be the case.

Broad implications for clinicians, policymakers and support services

The findings have broad implications for clinicians, policymakers and service providers in domestic and family violence support, women’s mental health and child protection, as well as policymakers focused on Australian gun and weapons policy.

“It’s vital to recognise that non-fatal gun and other weapon use as a form of intimate partner violence represents an extremely serious risk to the victim’s life, given the inherent lethality of the weapon and the documented patterns in which such threats are employed as tools of coercive control, too often preceding or facilitating subsequent homicide,” said Prof Rees.

The researchers said routine assessments in suspected cases of domestic violence should explicitly ask about threats or assaults involving guns, knives and other weapons, as their disclosure may identify women requiring urgent safety-focused and clinical intervention.

“Greater integration of firearm and weapon regulation, family violence prevention, and trauma-informed mental health care should also be considered, along with coordinated safety responses to reduce the immediate threat to life and the psychological consequences experienced by victim-survivors and their children,” said Dr Whitten.