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+--- Thread: News Giving men a common antidepressant could help tackle domestic violence: world-first study (/showthread.php?tid=1750)
Giving men a common antidepressant could help tackle domestic violence: world-first study - Clover - Dec 6 2025
The Conversation, December 2 2025
https://theconversation.com/giving-men-a-common-antidepressant-could-help-tackle-domestic-violence-world-first-study-270968
Could it, The Conversation? Could it really?
When I saw this article posted somewhere on Reddit, I was skeptical. And I was right to be. For starters, for anyone who has read Lundy Bancroft's Why Does He Do That? would understand that the root cause of domestic violence against women is men not viewing women as human beings, which manifests as a lack of respect and physical, mental, and sexual abuse. Bancroft's book explicitly peels away the excuses of mental illness as a justification for male violence against women. And yet this article seems to paint it as the reason, at least, the actions of a drug made to treat depression can miraculously help with domestic violence?!
Reading into the article:
Quote:However, those who took sertraline showed significant reductions in domestic violence reoffending:For men who took their medication more consistently, the reduction in reoffending reached 30% at 24 months.
- at 12 months, offending was lower in the sertraline group (19.1%) compared to placebo (24.8%)
- at 24 months, offending was lower in the sertraline group (28.2%) compared to the placebo group (35.7%).
Golly... ladies, please clap. Yes, by sedating men with antidepressants, we've managed to make it so that after one year, only one in five men beat the shit out of their female partners instead of one in four. And after two years... well... while that number does jump up to be a little higher than one in four men beating the shit out of their female partners if they're on the drug, at least it's not the one in three men if they weren't medicated, amirite?! By god, domestic violence has basically been solved. Big Pharma, you've done it again. 🥰
But don't just be blown away by these amazing statistics, ladies, please listen to this ✨ glowing ✨ testimonial!
Quote:One partner noted:
Quote:I used to sleep with a hammer under my bed. Since he started this medication, I can sleep more easily, and I don’t need to sleep with the hammer anymore.
That's right, ladies. She no longer needs to sleep with a hammer under the bed anymore in fear of her male partner attacking her while she sleeps. (There is no other possible way for her to sleep safely in a bed, you know. Not like, you know, leaving the man who makes her fear for her life so bad that she needed to sleep with a hammer, you know, like, I don't even know?? That's just not possible??? I'm pretty sure? 🤔🤔 Yeah, there's just... there's really no other options sadly.) If Sertraline isn't just the greatest modern love potion of our time, well, I don't know what is. 😍💘
THE BAR IS BEYOND HELL.
RE: Giving men a common antidepressant could help tackle domestic violence: world-firs... - Magpie - Dec 7 2025
Quote: Golly... ladies, please clap. Yes, by sedating men with antidepressants, we've managed to make it so that after one year, only one in five men beat the shit out of their female partners instead of one in four. And after two years... well... while that number does jump up to be a little higher than one in four men beating the shit out of their female partners if they're on the drug, at least it's not the one in three men if they weren't medicated, amirite?! By god, domestic violence has basically been solved. Big Pharma, you've done it again. 🥰
It's even worse, if you look at the actual study this supposed lower rate of domestic violence reoffending wasn't even statistically significant. This means they can't actually claim with this much certainty that there is a difference between the sertraline and placebo groups. They are suggesting an approach they haven't even provided sufficient evidence for.
That would be my main issue with this article, but there are others. The domestic violence result wasn't their primary outcome being studied. They had a lot of dropout over the course of the study. Adherence was really low by the end also, not necessarily unrealistically so (unfortunately) but it does show the weak point of their suggestion: even if sertraline does have this effect on abusive men, people are often pretty bad at actually taking their medication properly so how do they expect it to make a consistent difference?