Violent thoughts and violent behavior following hospitalization for mental disorder.

Abstract

Using a standardized schedule of questions, this study examined (a) the prevalence of self-report of violent thoughts by patients hospitalized for mental disorders compared with nonpatients, (b) the persistence of violent thoughts after discharge, and (c) the relation between patients' violent thoughts while hospitalized and violent acts within 20 weeks after hospital discharge. About 1/3 of the patients reported thoughts of violence while hospitalized, more than twice the proportion found among nonpatients. Reporting violent thoughts in hospital was significantly related to engaging in violent acts within 20 weeks after discharge for non-White patients, patients without major mental disorder but with substance abuse diagnoses, patients with high symptom severity, and patients whose reports of violent thoughts persisted after discharge. Reporting violent thoughts was significantly related to measures of psychopathy, anger, and impulsiveness.

Validation of the English Language Version of the Violent Ideations Scale

“…Their potentially important role in aggressive behaviour is acknowledged in many theories of aggression and violence (see Murray, Eisner, & Ribeaud, 2016 for a brief overview) and there is increasing interest in the extent to which they can be used to predict violence in forensic and clinical contexts (e.g. Grisso, Davis, Vesselinov, Appelbaum, & Monahan, 2000;Monahan et al, 2000;Walker, 2005). The latter refers to settings such as hospitals and in-patient units, or where violence may be exhibited in the context of the individual having a mental health problem.…”

“…The Schedule of Imagined Violence (Grisso et al, 2000). The SIV is a set of eight questions; completion is contingent on a positive answer to Question 1, which asks 'Do you ever have daydreams or thoughts about physically hurting or injuring another person?'…”

“…This self-report measure was chosen for use in the present study because it has been successful in distinguishing between those at a low and high risk of violence in both non-clinical (i.e. non-patient samples such as general population or student samples) and clinical patient samples (Grisso et al, 2000), as well as predicting future violence (Monahan et al, 2000). It is also commonly used in clinical and research contexts, both for assessing risk (Monahan et al, 2000) and for evaluating theories of violence (Nagtegaal, Rassin, & Muris, 2006).…”

“…In general, measurement of VI has related to specific thoughts or fantasies, such as homicide (Crabb, 2000), and there are few multi-item measures of VI. The Schedule of Imagined Violence (SIV; Grisso et al, 2000) has eight questions; however, each of the questions are designed to be treated separately. This removes any possible reliability benefits of having a multi-item VI measurement tool.…”

Sex Differences in Homicidal Fantasies among Finnish University Students

“…More specifically, previous research on homicidal fantasies have focused on the contents of the fantasies, situations in which they arise, triggers, the method of killing, or the real violent act associated with the homicidal fantasy (Crabb, 2000;Duntley, 2005;Grisso et al, 2000;Kenrick & Sheets, 1993), especially in psychiatric patients (Grisso et al, 2000), but not specifically between sexes, emotional reactions and in normal populations. Homicidal fantasies are considered a relatively normal phenomenon rooted in the evolutionary history of humans (Crabb, 2000).…”