Smoking patterns, symptoms of PTSD and depression: preliminary findings from a sample of severely battered women.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health problem that significantly impacts the physical and emotional well-being of women. In addition to the health risk associated with violence exposure, female victims of IPV are at increased risk of engaging in damaging health behaviors, including cigarette smoking. The present study examined patterns of cigarette smoking, using the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), and explored its association with sociodemographic factors, characteristics of physical, psychological, and sexual forms of IPV, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression within 62 female victims of severe battering. Fifty-eight percent of the total sample reported that they were current smokers. Within the group of current smokers, women who evidenced greater symptoms of nicotine-related physical dependence (NRPD) were more likely to be unemployed, have less education, experience more recent violence, more severe IPV-related sexual coercion, more IPV-related dominance/isolation, and more severe symptoms of PTSD and depression. In addition, greater symptoms of NRPD were significantly and positively associated with PTSD clusters of reexperiencing and arousal. Implications for these preliminary findings were discussed and directions for future research were detailed.