Delusions and symptom-consistent violence.
OBJECTIVE
The study examined the extent to which delusions motivate violent behavior among psychiatric patients with a history of delusions.


METHODS
Fifty-four psychiatric inpatients identified by hospital staff as having delusions were interviewed about their history of delusions and incidents of violence that were concurrent with delusions. Raters used a 5-point scale to estimate the degree to which each reported incident of violence was motivated by a concurrent delusion. A second set of raters used a 5-point scale to estimate the severity of the violent incidents.


RESULTS
Raters' mean estimate indicated overall that violent incidents were probably not motivated by concurrent delusions. However, a significant minority of violent subjects (40 percent) reported at least one violent incident that was judged to be probably or definitely motivated by a concurrent delusion. A smaller subgroup of violent subjects (17.5 percent) reported at least one incident that was judged to be both extremely violent and definitely motivated by a concurrent delusion.


CONCLUSIONS
Delusional motivation of violence is rare, but a moderate risk exists that delusions will motivate violence at some time during the course of a violent patient's illness.
Junginger
J
J
Adult Mental Health Division of the Hawaii Department of Health, Honolulu, USA.
Parks-Levy
J
J
McGuire
L
L
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003702:Delusions / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014754:Violence