Could a common antidepressant help some men deal with their domestic violence?

It was Jake’s* parole officer who first put him onto an unusual new research trial with men who’ve used violence.

Not long after he was given a suspended sentence for seriously assaulting his then-partner in 2018, Jake, a 40-year-old father of two, had noticed a poster for the study at the Gosford community corrections office and thought, why not?

“It said something about, if you had a short fuse, maybe they could help … and my parole officer agreed it would be a good idea,” Jake said. “I didn’t want to lose my kids, and I wanted to better myself.” His violent explosion, he said, “scared the shit out of me. I nearly went to jail over it”.

In his telling, Jake’s ex had been refusing to leave…