A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 6 studies with a total of 2 343 subjects. All studies were from the USA. There were two types of comparisons; four studies compared CBT with a non-intervention control, while two studies compared CBT with another active treatment.
A meta-analysis of four trials comparing CBT with a no-intervention control with 1 771 participants, reported that the RR of violence was 0.86 favouring the intervention group (95% CI 0.54 to 1.38). The results of individual studies varied from harmful (1 study) to no effect (1 study) and positive effect (2 studies). One study compared CBT with process-psychodynamic group treatment and found a relative risk of new violence of 1.07 (95% CI 0.68 to 1.68). One small study (N = 64) compared a combined treatment for substance abuse and domestic violence (SADV) with a Twelve-Step Facilitation (TSF) group. An analysis involving 58 participants investigated the effect on reduction in frequency of physical violence episodes. The effect size was 0.30 favouring TSF (95% Cl -0.22 to 0.81).
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency (variability in results across studies) and imprecise results (few patients and wide confidence intervals).
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