Essay on "Are People With Mental Health Problems at Increased Risk of Violence Discuss?"

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Recent studies have shown that the conditions in which mental patients most frequently commit violence do not vary noticeably more than those committed by people who are not mentally ill. In both groups, violence most frequently takes place from everyday stress, such as disagreements with spouses, family members and co-workers. Just as significant, the risk of violence does not show to remain constant over time. Again, as one might anticipate, the risk seems to alter as conditions in an individual's life change: it may surge throughout periods of married turmoil and diminish as a person settles into a new job (Mulvey & Fardella, 2000).

Other conclusions, however, are far more astonishing. New research, for instance, proposes that people who have less serious types of mental illness but who engage in drug abuse have the utmost risk for violence amongst the mentally ill. People with more severe mental disorders but no drug abuse issues, though, are no more likely to be violent than other people. Another examination of the data has found that people with violent hallucinations are no more likely to be violent than other people with mental illness. Other studies have also found that, different to popular belief, schizophrenics are less likely to be violent than those people with other mental illnesses (Mulvey & Fardella, 2000).

This is not to say that serious psychological troubles are totally unrelated to violence. it's just that the kinds of psychological troubles connected with a higher risk of violence may not be the troubles that people most normally think of as mental disorders. Certainly, it seems from these studies and others, that one of the greatest predictors of violence might be psychopathy or a personality trait marked by selfishness, lack of regret, and limited capability to manage antisocial desires. In the past several years, researchers have also followed the mentally ill after their discharge from hospitals to see how correct clinicians were at forecasting their risk of potential violence. Different to prior findings, clinicians were amazingly successful though far from perfect, in recognizing people with an superior risk of violence. There has been development in recognizing the risk of violence amongst the mentally ill. Nevertheless, the public's insist for greater defense from violence has led to large initiatives directed at the mentally ill population as a whole, rather than at those few who might in fact have a heightened risk for committing violence (Mulvey & Fardella, 2000).

A diagnosis of drug abuse appears to be a predominantly powerful risk factor for violence amid psychiatric patients. Patients who use drugs are much more likely than patients without these issues to take part in violent behaviors (Cottle, 2004). Outcomes of a lot of studies have shown that people with a major mental disorder, like schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, or other psychotic disorder, along with drug abuse problems are more likely than people with a major mental disorder but no drug abuse issues to take part in violent behavior.

Differences in gender also appear to be a significant factor in shaping the extent to which drug abuse issues augment the risk of violence amongst psychiatric patients. That is, women may be at equivalent or even greater risk than men to take part in violence if they have a drug abuse disorder. Additionally, women who reported taking part in violent behavior are more likely than nonviolent women to report having used cocaine in their recent past. Interestingly, even though men with drug abuse disorders have been shown to not have a significantly higher risk for violence, men who reported using heroin in their recent past prior to hospitalization were more likely to take part in violent behavior than men who did not use heroin (Cottle, 2004). Taken together, these findings propose that contemplations of both substance abuse disorders and substance use in the weeks prior to hospitalization are significant areas to evaluate when considering violence risk among psychiatric patients.

Drug abuse has been continuously observed as key risk factor for violence, both alone as well as in mixture with mental health illness. In a study done by Swanson et al. (1990), it was reported that drug abuse is a more striking factor for risk of violence than any major mental disorders. Fulwiler et al., (1997), examined people in forward community treatment programs and found that drug abuse either by itself or in association with mental disorders radically increased the likelihood of violent behavior. Appelbaum, Robbins & Monahan (2000), report that in the MacArthur study there was no augment found in pace of violence in mentally ill people compared to universal population if they were not using illegal drugs or alcohol. In a study done by Swartz, et al. (1998) it was shown that drug abuse and non-compliance with treatment as key predictors of violent behavior among mentally ill people.

Research supports the occurrence of certain socio-demographic and environmental matters as risk factors for violence. Swanson et al., (2002) carried out a study on a large sample of psychiatric patients with psychotic and mood disorders. They discovered environmental issues like homelessness and witnessing or experiencing violence in past as significantly adding towards the risk of violence. They also established that young males, with no mental illness and low socioeconomic position were significantly more predictive of violent behavior than mental illness alone. Link, Andrews & Cullen, (1992) established major relationships amid ones educational level and violence. In a study done by Silver, Mulvey & Monahan, (1999), it was shown that psychiatric patients released into areas of great population further increased their risk of violence by almost three times.

The connection between certain demographic variables and violence risk amid community examples is well documented. For instance, a younger age and lower socioeconomic status have constantly been linked with violence risk. "Interestingly, with respect to socioeconomic status, are recent findings showing that residing in a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhood is more predictive of violence than individual socioeconomic status, even after controlling for age, gender, race, substance use disorder, psychopathy, and individual socioeconomic status" (Silver, Mulvey, & Monahan, 1999). This proposes that studies looking at violence risk should not only take into account more conventional things, such as age, race, and socioeconomic status of the partaker, but should also try to account for more multifaceted, related factors, such as the kind of neighborhood in which one lives. The quantity to which this is done in studies to date is not known.

With respect to gender, studies have time and again shown that, in community samples, men are at higher risk for violence than women. This has not been constantly found in psychiatric settings and populations, though. While some studies have established a similar gender differences in violence risk amid the mentally ill others have found little or no association between gender and violence among the mentally ill. In addition, some studies propose that the relationship between gender and violence risk depends on the kind of violence being looked at, or on the target of violence, or on clinical factors like diagnosis (Cottle, 2004). For instance, women have been shown to be more likely than men to make violent threats, while men are more likely than women to become caught up in physical fights or other, more severe, forms of violence. Both men and women have been shown to intimidate relatives and non-relatives in equal extents. On the other hand, when involved in violent acts, women are more likely than men to direct violence towards… READ MORE