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Dangerous Behaviour Preceding First Admissions for Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

M. S. Humphreys ,
E. C. Johnstone ,
J. F. MacMillan  and
P. J. Taylor
M. S. Humphreys*
Affiliation:
Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
E. C. Johnstone
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
J. F. MacMillan
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
P. J. Taylor
Affiliation:
Special Hospitals Service Authority, and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

Of 253 patients in their first schizophrenic episode, 52 behaved in a way threatening to the lives of others before their admission to hospital. These 52 patients were studied from data collected at the time of their initial presentation. Despite a history of illness in excess of 1 year in 24 cases, and evidence that violence was motivated by psychotic symptoms in 23 cases, fewer than half of the patients were admitted to hospital as a direct result of their dangerous behaviour. Life-threatening behaviour was more common where the patient had been ill for longer, and where there were delusions of being poisoned.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 161 , Issue 4 , October 1992 , pp. 501 - 505
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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