Study Looks at Predictors of Violence in High-Risk Schizophrenia Patients

This study is … the first, to our knowledge, to describe the correlates of subsequent injurious violence among patients being treated for schizophrenia in which the independent variables include recent violence toward others,” wrote Alec Buchanan, Ph.D., M.D, of Yale University School of Medi cine and colleagues.The analysis included 1,435 participants in the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) study. Researchers assessed participants ’ clinical condition and violent behavior at baseline and every six months for the duration of the 18-month study.Violent behavior was self-reported using the 19-item MacArthur Community Violence Interview, which included questions about behavior ( “Have you pushed, grabbed, or shoved anyone?”) and injury (“Did you physically hurt or injure anyone?”). Based on initial responses, participants were placed into these categories: no violence, noninjurious violence, or injurious violence. Other potential predictors of violent behavior that were assessed included childhood abuse, alcohol and substance use, recent victimization, hospitalizations, arrests, and socioeconomic factors such as income and food or housing instability.An analysis of all participants found that baseline injurious violence was the strongest predictor of future violence leading to injury. Other strong predictors included drug use severity and childhood sexual abuse. Medication nonadherence was the only clinical factor associated with ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: ajp in advance Alec Buchanan CATIE medication adherence schizophrenia violence Yale Source Type: research