When only death can save me! Understanding suicidality in women victims of IPV admitted to emergency departments: a scoping review

The scientific literature unanimously assumes that intimate partner violence (IPV) increases the vulnerability of victims to such an extent that the link between this type of violence and suicide appears to be particularly critical. The aim of this scoping review was to summarize the scientific evidence on the prevalence of suicide - suicidal ideation, attempts and completions – in women who were victims of IPV admitted to emergency departments (EDs) due to suicide attempts. The review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis for Scoping Review. The PubMed, Ebsco and Web of Science databases were systematically searched using a string of Boolean operators that combined multiple synonyms of IPV, suicide and EDs. The inclusion criteria were: adult women who were victims of IPV; being admitted to the ED for suicide attempts, and/or died by suicide; with or without a comparison group; quantitative studies with all types of study design. The review included 22 studies from 1995 to 2023. All studies emphasized the extent to which a history of IPV particularly affects the psychological well-being of victims, limiting their sense of agency and impoverishing their identity and self-esteem, so that suicide was often seen as a way out of what had already occurred for many victims: a sense of psychological disintegration. A further urgency is to prevent the persistence of IPV, as this means preventing women from suicidal thoughts and attempts.