Great article!
There's a great book too that touches a lot on this as well. It's by Lundy Bancroft and it's called 'Why does he do that? Inside the minds of angry and controlling men'! What an in-depth eye-opener!!! It explains that verbal abuse (as if that weren't already harmful enough) 'can' lead to or 'can' be a precursor to physical abuse (although not every case leads there).
Interestingly enough it also touches on the fact that alcoholism is not the reason for abuse whether it's verbal and/or physical. Sure, alchohol lowers ones' inhibitions, but it doesn't 'cause' the abuse, because it's already an underlying issue that resides within their personality.