Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Title: Can mental health treatments help prevent or reduce intimate partner violence in 
low- and middle -income countries? A systematic review  
 
Version: 0 Date: 17 Dec 2018  
 
Reviewer: BEATRIZ AYALA  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
Some minor observations/recommendations are set out below:  
Was there any restriction of the year of publication?  
Please check the numbers of articles in the PRISMA flow chart. After double screening of 56 full 
text papers, 47 full text papers were excluded and 8 articles were identified as eligible for 
inclusion. T hen, the number should be 9 articles instead of 8 articles.  
It may be important to mention the lack of standardized measures for IPV across studies, which 
would be important to assess comparability across studies.  
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your com ments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
Yes 
 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an  
additional statistical  review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended, please specify what aspects require further  
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
Not relevant to this manuscript  
 
  
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Acceptable  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following questions:  
 
1. Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, fe es, funding, or salary from an  
organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this  
manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way gain or lose  
financial ly from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
3. Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents relating to the content of the  
manuscript?  
 
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organizat ion that 
holds  or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript?  
 
5. Do you have any other financial competing interests?  
 
6. Do you have any non -financial competing interests in relation to this paper?  
 
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have no competing interests' 
below.  If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
None  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal. I understand that my name will be included  
on my report to the authors an d, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, my named report  
including any attachments I upload will be posted on the website along with the authors'  
responses. I agree for my report to be made available under an Open Access Creative Commons  
CC-BY lic ense ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). I understand that any comments  
which I do not wish to be included in my named report can be included as confidential comments  
to the editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal