Who Will Become Violent? New Insights in Psychiatric Research

Managing the risk for violence continues to be a challenge, but recent research provides more information about this common problem.

Because mania is associated with agitation, many people think that bipolar disorder leads to violence. In a Swedish study, 3743 bipolar disorder patients did have significantly higher risks for committing violent crime than 37,429 controls and 4059 unaffected siblings (odds ratios, 2.3 and 1.6, respectively), but the increase was primarily a function of comorbid substance abuse (ORs: compared with controls, 6.4; compared with siblings, 2.8; JW Psychiatry Nov 1 2010). The smaller differences between patients and siblings than between patients and controls may reflect a familial factor linked to the risk for subs…