Prevalence of physical violence in a forensic psychiatric hospital system during 2011–2013: Patient assaults, staff assaults, and repeatedly violent patients

Abstract

Overall, 31.4% of patients committed at least 1 violent assault during their hospitalization. Differential risk factor patterns were noted across patient and staff assault. Younger age was associated with a higher prevalence of both patient and staff assault, as was nonforensic legal status. Females had a higher prevalence of staff assault than patient assault. Ethnic groups varied on rates of patient assault, but had no significant differences for staff assault. Schizoaffective disorder was associated with higher prevalence and odds of patient (OR 1.244, 95% CI 1.131 to 1.370) and staff (OR 1.346, 95% CI 1.202 to 1.507) assault when compared to patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Most personality disorder diagnoses also had a higher prevalence and odds of physical violence. One percent of patients accounted for 28.7% of all assaults. Additionally, violent patients had a significantly longer length of hospitalization. Discussion Implications of these findings to enhance patient safety and inform future violence reduction efforts, including the need for new treatments in conjunction with the use of violence risk assessments, are discussed.