Research being presented today at the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ International Conference, shows that although individuals with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder, are more than twice as likely to be violent during their lifetime than individuals without mental illness, the lifetime prevalence of violence by people with mental illness is only 16%.
In comparison, people without a mental illness who abuse substances, have a 35% lifetime prevalence of violence.
Add substance abuse to mental illness and this figure rises to 44%.
Professor Renée Binder, President of the American Psychiatric Association, has spent much of her career tackling how to assess the risk of violent behaviour in the mentally ill, a delicate and emotional subject.
Throughout history, it has been assumed that individuals with mental illness are more likely to be violent than others. Research, however, has shown that most people with mental illness are not violent. In actual fact, 95% of violent acts are carried out by people not suffering mental illness, and those with mental illness are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators.
Factors affecting a person’s potential to be violent are many and varied; the greatest is having a history of violence. Historical and clinical factors such as age, gender, diagnosis and socioeconomic status are also influences and these can be modified by situational factors such as setting and circumstances.
Other aspects that affect the risk of violence by people with mental illness include the type of acute symptoms, the stage of illness, issues related to medication compliance and interpersonal factors, particularly relationships with family members.
Professor Binder will also discuss differences and similarities between American and British risk factors for violence.
She concludes,
“In both the U.S. and in Great Britain, there is the incorrect perception that people with mental illness pose a significant risk of violence. In fact, the association between violence and mental illness is small.”
