A new study concludes that mental illness alone does not predict violence. For the past two decades, debate about a putative link between mental illness and violence has been heated with implications for policy, treatment and legal decisions. The authors of this study, published in Archives of General Psychiatry, interviewed 34,500 people in a national sample who were diagnosed with schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder and major depression. Their findings, based on interviews roughly 3 years apart, indicate that of the numerous predictors of violence (age, sex, employment, parental criminal history, or history of violence, abuse or detention) it was substance use with mental illness that was found to be relevant. The authors call for a more sophisticated analysis of situational, indirect and individual co-factors to promote safety and manage risk without stigma.
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by Phyllis Vine
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