Delusions that Lead to Violence

The hypothesized association between delusions and violence may have mediating factors. To learn more, researchers in the U.K. interviewed 458 inner-city patients with first-episode psychosis (75% had nonaffective psychosis).

In the year before first psychiatric contact, 62% of patients exhibited no violence, 26% engaged in minor violence (assault without use of weapons or resulting in injury), and 12% engaged in serious violence (injury, use or threat of weapons, sexual assault). Comorbid antisocial personality disorder was almost 6 times as common and drug use was twice as common in patients with serious violence as in nonviolent patients.

Analyses adjusted for demographic factors and psychiatric comorbidity. Minor violence was significantl…