Researchers start studying traumatic brain injury from domestic violence

Researchers may one day be able to identify biomarkers that could indicate when a patient’s brain is showing signs of assault, even when they themselves are unable or too afraid to report it.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Researchers know a lot about the traumatic brain injuries that occur in contact sports and combat, but they’re just beginning to study injuries from another leading cause – domestic violence. NPR’s Jon Hamilton reports on how assaults by a spouse or intimate partner can damage the brain – and a warning that this story contains graphic descriptions of physical violence.

JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: Domestic abuse takes many forms. Maria E. Garay-Serratos saw that up close during her childhood in Southern California.

MARIA E GARAY-SERRATOS: My mom was hit a lot. There was choking. There was a lot of shaking, objects thrown at her, shoved against the wall, thrown against appliances, dragged by her hair in the yard.

HAMILTON: Garay-Serratos was about 4 the first time she saw her mom assaulted. The abuser was her father. Friends and relatives knew but didn’t intervene, and her mother never tried to leave. Garay-Serratos says she was still a child when she realized the violence was affecting her mother’s brain.

GARAY-SERRATOS: My father was a very avid fan of boxing. And I remember seeing some of the symptoms that these boxers exhibited while they were in the ring. And I thought, oh, my God. That’s my mom.

HAMILTON: Sluggish, confused, struggling to balance. But Garay-Serratos says domestic violence has no rules that limit the damage.

GARAY-SERRATOS: It is not like boxing. It’s not like football, you know, where there’s times out and referees. No, some of these episodes last for, like, hours.

HAMILTON: Today, Garay-Serratos is a Ph.D. social worker who knows that her experience is part of a much larger problem. About a third of women and some men say they’ve experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner. Studies…