In the spring of this year, The Permanente Journal published a review of our book. Here is an excerpt from the review, written by Dr. Ruth Shaber (pictured here.)

Patricia Salber, MD, and Ellen Taliaferro, MD, have compiled the definitive handbook for health care professionals. Their chapters, along with those of their expert contributors, help us navigate through the complicated web of social, psychological, and medical issues that lie underneath the surface of IPV. Many clinicians are intimidated by the thought of dealing with IPV: they are unfamiliar with the proper language to use to screen their patients and they dread the time when a patient will acknowledge the violence in their lives--for fear that they won't have the expertise or enough time to support them effectively. Fortunately, the authors help us realize the therapeutic value of simply asking the questions--even if our patients aren't able to make immediate changes in their lives. And they help clinicians better understand why immediate changes may be difficult and even dangerous. They provide simple tips for offering support and referral to identified victims. And they help explain the social dynamics and practical realities that limit the speed with which change will happen. The book also outlines effective strategies to set up IPV screening programs in our clinics.

A particularly interesting chapter entitled "What Do We Know About the Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse" helps us understand the prevalence of alcoholism and personality disorders among perpetrators. There is also inspiring information about the effectiveness of batterer intervention programs--with some data suggesting a re-arrest rate as low as 8% among batterers who completed an intervention program. Some of the chapters will help you better understand information that you already knew or suspected about IPV.

But some of the chapters--such as the one on Adverse Childhood Experiences and IPV--will turn everything you thought you knew about medicine upside down.

Family Violence Prevention Fund held its 2007 National Conference on Health and Domestic Violence in San Francisco this past March. When Dr.George Lundberg gave his keynote speech, he held up a copy of our book, "The Physician's Guide to Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse" and advised audience members to buy the book.

We are very excited about our updated and expanded edition of "Physician's Guide to Domestic Violence." This book, first published in 1995, was written by Dr. Pat Salber and me when the healthcare profession was just becoming aware of domestic violence (now referred to more as intimate partner violence) as a health issue.

Few research articles addressing domestic violence existed at the time we first wrote the book. Now the number of articles regarding intimate partner violence abounds. A Google search for "intimate partner violence" returned nearly one-half million "hits."

We also had help from our friends with this edition of the book: Vincent Felitti, MD, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program; Robert F. Anda, MD, Centers for Disease Control; Rachel Davis, MSW; Corinne Graffunder, MPH; Brigid McCaw, MD, Clinical Lead, Family Violence Prevention Services, Kaiser Permanente; Gael Strack, Director of the City of San Diego Family Justice Center; and, Larry Cohen, MSW, Executive Director, The Prevention Institute.

We thank each and every one of them. You can learn more about them and their work in future issues of the Health After Trauma eZine.

Drs. Patricia Salber (pictured here) and Dov Michaeli write about fat, fitness, longevity, and health at The Doctor Weighs In (TDWI) website.. TDWI is the place to go to for digestible information about your health. Be sure to check out "Laughter is the Best Medicine," a daily dose of humor brought to you by Randy Glasbergen, cartoonist extraordinaire.

Much thanks to Gail Fonda who contributed an article in response to our last eZine. You can read her article by clicking here.

In between mailings of this eZine, we will be posting articles and other items of interest. Please check in from time to time to see what's there.

We invite your contributions in the form of articles, suggestions, or resources. Simply mail these contributions straight to Dr.T by email.