Substance misuse and violence: A comparison of special hospital inpatients diagnosed with either schizophrenia or personality disorder
Abstract
There is increasing interest in the relationship between schizophrenia, substance misuse and serious violence. We compared the pattern of substance misuse in inpatients with schizophrenia convicted of serious offences with that of a matched group with personality disorder. We also compared those with and without a history of substance misuse in their use of drugs or alcohol at the time of their violent index offence. We matched 75 substance misusing patients with schizophrenia with a group of patients with personality disorder and compared the types of substances misused in both groups. We compared these two groups with a larger sample of inpatients without a history of substance misuse to determine the presence of substance misuse at the time of the index offence. No differences were found between the matched groups in their choice of drugs. Drug abusing male inpatients with a personality disorder were significantly more likely to have consumed alcohol at the time of the violent offence compared with the other groups. Although the reporting of substance misuse was unexpectedly low, our data (a) showed no evidence that patients with schizophrenia preferentially choose to misuse specific types of drugs compared with personality disordered patients and (b) that intoxication with alcohol at the time of the violent offence may be important in male patients with a personality disorder and a history of substance misuse.
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Date
1998
Type
Article
Subject
Schizophrenia, Personality disorders, Violence, Substance-related disorders
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Citation
Corbett, M., Duggan, C. & Larkin, E. P. (1998). Substance misuse and violence: A comparison of special hospital inpatients diagnosed with either schizophrenia or personality disorder. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 8 (4), pp.311-321.