Family violence and psychiatric disorder.
The relationship between family violence and psychiatric disorders was examined using standardized diagnostic interviews of 1200 randomly selected residents of a large Canadian city. The results showed that higher than expected proportions of those exhibiting violent behavior had a psychiatric diagnosis and the rate of violent behaviors in those with diagnoses (54.4%) significantly (p less than .0001) exceeds the rate in the remainder of the sample (15.5%). Particularly high rates of violence are found in those where alcoholism is combined with antisocial personality disorder and/or recurrent depression (80-93%). Also at high risk for violence are those who have made suicide attempts (over 50%) and those who have been arrested for non-traffic offences (two-thirds). These data suggest that psychiatric disorders have a strong relationship to violent behavior, and are not in agreement with the predominantly sociological explanations of family violence.
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000416:Alberta; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D013179:Spouse Abuse; D014754:Violence