Bolton, Salford & Trafford Mental HealthTrust and University of Manchester, UK
Correspondence: Dr Michael Doyle, Edenfield Centre, Bolton, Salford & Trafford Mental HealthTrust, 535 Bury New Road, Prestwich, Manchester M25 3BL, UK. Tel: +44 (0)161772 3879; fax: +44 (0)161772 3446; email: mike.doyle{at}bstmht.nhs.uk
Declaration of interest None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.
|
|
|---|
Aims To examine the predictive accuracy of the MacVRAS measures, in addition to structured professional judgement, in a UK sample of patients discharged from in-patient care in the north-west of England.
Method A prospective study of 112 participants assessed pre-discharge and followed up at 24 weeks post-discharge. Pre-discharge measures were compared with prevalence of violent behaviour to determine predictive validity of risk factors.
Results Historical measures of risk and measures of psychopathy, impulsiveness and anger were highly predictive of community violence. The more dynamic clinical and risk management factors derived from structured professional judgement (rated atdischarge) added significant incremental validity to the historical factors in predicting community violence.
Conclusions Although static measures of risk relating to past history and personality make an important contribution to assessment of violence risk, consideration of current dynamic factors relating to illness and risk management significantly improves predictive accuracy.
|
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
Procedure
The North West Multi-site Research Ethics Committee approved the study, and
written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
The plan was to recruit a minimum of 100 participants into the study, as this has been found to be more than sufficient to obtain significant results in previous prediction studies of this type (e.g. Doyle et al, 2002; Gray et al, 2004). A total of 129 participants were discharged during the 18-month study period. Of these, 112 (86.8%) completed the follow-up interviews. All participants were interviewed pre-discharge while in-patients, using a semi-structured interview schedule designed to elicit the information needed to score the standardised research instruments and minimise duplication of questions relating to similar domains. Nursing staff with good knowledge of participants were interviewed to gather collateral information needed to score key risk measures. A notification and tracking system was set up to ensure notification about all imminent or potential discharges across the sites, so that pre-discharge assessments could be prioritised and conducted accordingly. This system was checked regularly to ensure that no cases were missed.
Community violence was measured by completing the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Instrument (Monahan et al, 2001) with the participant and a collateral informant. The prevalence of community violence used in the analysis was based on official records, in addition to self-reports and collateral reports that were masked to baseline assessment measures. Data were also extracted from the Offenders Index at the Home Office. The primary outcome measure for the purpose of analyses was any violence in the 24-week period post-discharge.
Baseline assessment
Measures
The measures were chosen because they had demonstrated significant
predictive validity in previous violence risk prediction studies, because they
allowed comparison of historical, dispositional, clinical and contextual
factors as described in the MacVRAS
(Monahan et al, 2001)
or because they were scales specifically designed to assess the risk of
violence (i.e. HCR–20, VRAG). Measures were completed from data derived
from the range of data sources cited above. The Novaco Anger Scale (NAS;
Novaco, 2003) and the Barratt
Impulsiveness Scale (BIS; Barratt,
1994) were self-report questionnaires.
The PCL–SV was chosen as the measure of psychopathy because it was designed for use in non-forensic samples (Hart et al, 1995). It has 12 items reflecting two parts. Part 1 reflects interpersonal and affective symptoms, and Part 2 reflects social deviance symptoms. Total scores range from 0 to 24, and scores of 18 or more are considered psychopathic in US studies.
The VRAG contains 12 items, attributed integer weights, ranging from –5 to +12. The VRAG was designed for use with forensic populations, and three of the items rely upon rating of index offence. Participants with no index offence were given the lowest score possible for the three index-offence-related items.
The HCR–20 is a composite of 20 risk factors for violence. The ten historical factors relate to past relatively stable violence risk factors; the five clinical items reflect current, dynamic (changeable) correlates of violence; and the five risk management items focus on situational factors that may aggravate or mitigate risk. The HCR–20 is therefore sensitive to change, as the clinical and risk management items are dependent on current functioning and context and can act as a barometer of risk. In this study, the clinical and risk management items were rated at time of discharge and were used to examine the incremental validity of dynamic factors in addition to static factors. The total HCR–20 score reported here was a composite of the historical factors rated at baseline and the clinical and risk management scales rated at discharge.
The NAS is a 60-item self-report instrument that includes 48 items that measure three cognitive, arousal and behavioural domains of anger, each containing 16 items. Each domain has four sub-scales containing four items. The scale includes a 12-item anger regulation domain that provides information on cognitive, arousal and behavioural regulation of anger.
The BIS is a 30-item Likert-type self-report impulsiveness measure that has three sub-factors of impulsiveness; motor – acting without thinking, comprising 10 items; cognitive – making quick decisions, 8 items; non-planning – lack of concern for the future, 12 items.
Participants
Of the 129 participants who were discharged, complete data were available
for 112, as 6 (3%) of the sample were transferred to another institution, 2
died before discharge (1%) and 9 were lost to followup (7%). The mean number
of days to community follow-up was 168.47 (s.d.=16.88). The mean age of the
community sample was 40 years (s.d.=11.5). The majority (75, 67%) were men.
Almost all (104, 93%) were White. Over two-thirds of the sample (78, 70%) were
discharged from district services and 34 (30%) were discharged from the three
forensic sites. Nearly half the sample (52, 46%) had a primary diagnosis of
schizophrenia, 8 (7%) of schizo-affective disorder, 18 (16%) of bipolar
disorder, 15 (13%) of depression, 4 (4%) of personality disorder, 6 (5%) of
substance misuse and 9 (8%) of other disorders or unknown. Thus, 78 (70%) of
the sample had a serious mental illness diagnosis of either
schizophrenia-spectrum disorder or bipolar disorder. Over half (59, 53%) were
legally detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 at baseline assessment.
Although less than a third were discharged from a forensic facility, 61
(54.5%) had a recorded criminal index offence for which they were receiving
treatment or had been receiving ongoing treatment before the baseline
assessment; 16 (14%) of the sample met the recommended cut-off score of >18
for psychopathy on the PCL–SV.
Community follow-up defining and measuring violence
Violence at follow-up was defined in accordance with the MacVRACS as:
...any acts that include battery that resulted in physical injury; sexual assaults; assaultative acts that involved the use of a weapon; or threats made with a weapon in hand (Monahan et al, 2001).
Data analysis
Data were analysed using SPSS for Windows version 10.1. Descriptive
statistics described the sample. Interrater reliability checks were conducted
for 20 cases on the historical items of the HCR–20 and the PCL–SV,
as different raters had rated the same patients. Intraclass correlation
coefficients were satisfactory between two researchers for the clinically
rated historical items of the HCR–20 (0.97), PCL–SV total (0.97),
PCL–SV factor 1 (0.85) and PCL–SV factor 2 (0.8). The interrater
reliability between three raters based on seven cases was 0.99 for the VRAG,
0.85 and 0.83 for the clinical and risk management items of the HCR–20.
Group differences between violent and non-violent samples were assessed using
2- and t-tests as appropriate. Receiver operating
characteristic analysis was conducted to examine the predictive validity of
the risk factors (Mossman,
1994). Logistic regression procedures were used to calculate odds
ratios and examine the best predictive model for the dichotomous violence
outcome measure based on the variables that were significant in univariate
analysis. These procedures also controlled for possible confounding variables
(age, length of stay, gender, forensic status).
|
|
|---|
2=42.49, d.f.=1, P<0.001 when compared with 9%
when using records alone).
Comparison of violent and non-violent groups
There were no significant differences based on psychiatric diagnoses
between violent and non-violent groups, but a higher proportion (38%) of those
meeting the criteria for psychopathy (based on a cut-off of 18) were violent
compared with those who scored below the cut-off (16%)
(Table 1). There was no
significant difference in the prevalence of violence between the forensic and
non-forensic samples. There were no significant differences between violent
and non-violent groups in terms of age, gender, ethnicity or presence of a
clinical personality disorder diagnosis
(Table 1). Those who were
subject to the enhanced care programme approach
(Department of Health, 2000) on
discharge were significantly less likely to be violent in the 24 weeks after
discharge (Table 1).
|
View this table: [in a new window] | Table 1 Comparison of violent and non-violent groups |
Predictive validity of risk scales
There were significant differences between violent and non-violent groups
on all the baseline risk assessment scales, with the violent group having
higher scores on all measures (Table
2). The PCL–SV and self-reported anger and impulsiveness
demonstrated most significant differences between violent and non-violent
groups. In the receiver operating characteristic analysis, which examined the
predictive validity of the scales, the majority of measures were significantly
predictive at the P<0.05 level but the accuracy level varied
between scales (Table 3). For
these analyses, the HCR–20 total was calculated according to the total
historical items score at baseline and the total score of the ten clinical and
risk management scores measured at discharge. The historical items scale of
the HCR–20 measured at baseline had a moderate area under curve (AUC),
whereas the HCR–20 total had the largest AUC at 0.797
(Table 3). The NAS total and
sub-scales AUCs ranged from 0.696 to 0.723 for the cognitive sub-scale. The
BIS cognitive sub-scale had the largest AUC (0.735). The VRAG had a relatively
low AUC (0.657) and the PCL–SV and its sub-scales had moderate AUCs
ranging from 0.666 to 0.687 (Table
3).
|
View this table: [in a new window] | Table 2 Comparison of baseline risk scales mean scores with violence |
|
View this table: [in a new window] | Table 3 Predictive validity of risk scales |
Incremental validity of the HCR–20 clinical and risk management items
To examine the relative contribution of the dynamic clinical and risk
management factors of the HCR–20 measured at discharge, we used a series
of logistic regression analyses based on hierarchical methods. To do this, a
number of significant baseline factors (see below) were entered on the first
step, and then the HCR–20 dynamic clinical and risk management scales
were added to see whether the predictive model improved. Variables selected
for entry were based on the scales or sub-scales of all measures that showed
the most significant differences in the univariate and predictive receiver
operating characteristic analysis. As the psychopathy score was entered as an
individual item, we removed the psychopathy item from the historical items of
the HCR–20 and VRAG to avoid conflation, as recommended in previous
studies of this type (Douglas et
al, 1999b). The factors entered in the first
regression procedure (model 1, Table
4) were the total scores on the PCL–SV, historical items
sub-scale (minus PCL–SV item), VRAG total (minus PCL–SV item), BIS
cognitive sub-scale and NAS cognitive sub-scale. The regression procedure was
repeated, adding the HCR–20 clinical and risk management scores rated at
discharge (model 2; Table 4).
Model 1, without the clinical and risk management scales total, demonstrated a
highly significant chi-square value (23.53, P<0.001) and correctly
classified 86% of the sample. However, only the BIS and NAS cognitive
sub-scales independently predicted violence with significant odds ratios,
where P<0.005 (Table
4). When the clinical and risk management scales total was added
to the model (model 2), the chi-square statistic for the model improved
(36.17, P<0.001) and the percentage of the sample correctly
classified increased to 88%. In model 2, only the clinical and risk management
total score independently predicted community violence post-discharge.
Therefore, the HCR–20 clinical and risk management dynamic scales added
significant incremental validity to the baseline measures.
|
View this table: [in a new window] | Table 4 Logistic regression predictive model with and without clinical and risk management scales |
In order to further test the predictive validity of the HCR–20 total score, further logistic regression procedures were conducted to control for possible confounding variables that have been identified in previous studies (e.g. Swanson et al, 1990). Therefore on step 1 the HCR–20 total was entered alone, whereas on step 2 age, gender, length of stay as in-patient and forensic status were added to examine the possible confounding effect of these variables. The HCR–20 total score significantly predicted post-discharge violence, and this remained the case on step 2 when age, gender, length of stay as in-patient and forensic status were added (Table 5). The adjusted odds ratio actually increased when confounding variables were entered, supporting the independent predictive accuracy of the HCR–20 for post-discharge violence
|
View this table: [in a new window] | Table 5 HCR–20 odds ratio (step 1) and adjusted odds ratio when confounding variables added (step 2) |
|
|
|---|
Comparison with findings from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study
Despite the differences between this study and the MacVRAS, we found that
the results were generally very similar, suggesting cross-cultural validity in
a number of measures. The mean follow-up period of approximately 24 weeks in
this study was comparable with the 20-week follow-up in the MacVRAS, where the
rate of violence at 20 weeks follow-up was 18.7%. This is comparable with our
data (19%) for a 24-week follow-up period. We found similarly that the
inclusion of collateral information significantly enhanced the detection of
violent behaviour in the community in this UK sample. Previous US studies have
also highlighted the value of collateral informants in this type of research
(Steadman et al,
1998; Monahan et al,
2001). If we had relied on official records alone, we would have
detected only half of the incidents that occurred, and this might have limited
our ability to accurately assess the validity of the key measures. The
limitation of treating violence as a binary outcome should also be noted, as
those committing frequent, severe acts of violence can be classified with
those committing only one. Multiple statistical comparisons were made in this
study, thereby increasing the risk of spurious results. However, we are
confident in the validity of our results in view of the consistency and
significance of findings across different measures and the similarities
between our findings and previous research.
We found a higher rate of psychopathy in our sample (14%) than the MacVRAS sample where only 8% met the criteria. This is not surprising, as we had included a forensic sample, and previous studies have suggested that at least 25% of forensic patients would meet the criteria for psychopathy (Hart et al, 1995; Doyle et al, 2002).
In terms of the predictive accuracy of key measures, we found that the PCL–SV, VRAG and HCR–20 significantly predicted violence in the community. This fits with data from previous US studies (e.g. Rice, 1997; Douglas et al, 1999b; Skeem & Mulvey, 2001; Harris et al, 2002). The lower predictive accuracy of the VRAG compared with previous studies (e.g. Rice, 1997) is likely to be due to the facts that in this cohort nearly half of the participants did not have an offending history and the tool was rated in a non-standard way. The VRAG was developed with a forensic sample and, as three items are offence-related, the VRAG is likely to be a better predictor in populations with a history of offending behaviour.
In this sample we found that BIS impulsiveness and NAS anger problems (particularly the cognitive components) were significantly predictive of subsequent violence. The MacVRAS found similar but less powerful relationships with impulsiveness and anger as measured by the BIS and NAS, whereas anger and impulsiveness have been found to be associated with subsequent violence in several other studies (Segal et al, 1988; Novaco & Renwick, 1998). These findings suggest that self-report measures of anger and impulsiveness, that are easily administered and scored, may have some clinical utility in identifying those at risk of subsequent violence. The findings also suggest that previous criticisms and scepticism about the value of self-report questionnaires in risk assessment in forensic samples (e.g. Hart et al, 1995) may be overestimated. However, it should be noted that in research settings, where the findings from self-report data have no direct clinical impact, it is possible that the respondents are more honest than when these measures are administered for clinical purposes and their answers may affect release decisions.
Diagnosis
We found no striking relationship between specific diagnosis and future
community violence. The lack of a relationship might be explained by the
relatively low base rate of violence, small sample size and general lack of
statistical power. Nevertheless, contradictory findings might reflect real
differences in the levels of supervision in the samples studied. Further, our
findings supported the important effect of aftercare arrangements as a
protective factor; an enhanced level of the care programme approach was found
to be protective against violence after discharge. Treatment, engagement,
compliance and restrictions in the community are possible confounders in this
study, and this is clearly an area that requires research in the future. In
this study, we did not find that substance misuse or a clinical diagnosis of
personality disorder per se were specifically associated with
subsequent violence, although both these factors have been reported as robust
risk predictors in previous studies
(Swanson et al, 1990;
Widiger & Trull, 1994;
Steadman et al, 1998;
Monahan et al, 2001).
There are a number of reasons why there are conflicting findings in the
literature, and these may be the result of variation in the characteristics of
the samples (civil or forensic), differences in assessment of personality
disorder (clinical or research-based) and differences in information sources
(self-report or collateral or official records or combined). Future studies
need to take these factors into consideration in study designs.
Psychopathy and the HCR–20
It is noteworthy that, as with numerous previous studies, psychopathy was
predictive of future violence. What is surprising is that this predictive
accuracy was not as high as might have been expected based on previous
findings, and that the accuracy was surpassed by measures of anger and
impulsiveness. This seems to fit with the recent findings of Skeem et
al (2005), where measures
of personality traits and antagonism were more important than psychopathy in
explaining violent outcome in the MacVRAS sample.
Our main finding was that the HCR–20 (which was not used in the MacVRAS) was the most robust predictor of subsequent community violence, and that the clinical and risk management items (which are dynamic in nature) do add significant incremental validity to the assessment of risk, over and above that of more static factors such as those listed under the historical scale of the HCR–20. Although the proportion correctly classified increased modestly from 86% to 88%, more importantly, when the clinical and risk management scales total was added to the original model, it was found to be the only significant predictor.
Structural professional judgement
The heterogeneity of violence risk factors found in this study suggest that
reliance on findings based on historical aggregate data, essential for
epidemiological studies and potentially useful for clinical decision making,
may be limited in their applicability to individual patients. Overall, our
findings highlight the importance of considering current social functioning,
mental state and contextual factors in decision making. Furthermore, our data
suggest that the HCR–20 has reasonable cross-cultural validity, as our
findings fit with other international studies highlighting the predictive
accuracy of this measure in a range of settings, including Canada
(Douglas et al,
1999b), Scotland (D. J. Cooke, personal communication,
2006) and Sweden (Grann et al,
1999). However, as with other structured risk assessments, it
should be noted that the level of supervision provided on release can
attenuate the predictive accuracy of this measure for post-discharge violence.
This was demonstrated by Dolan & Khawaja
(2004), who noted that the
HCR–20 predicted self-report violence and readmission, but not
officially recorded violence, as supervising staff were using readmission as
an effective management strategy. Previous writers in this field have noted
this phenomenon (Hart, 1998;
Douglas et al, 2003).
Our evidence suggests that, contrary to arguments by those supporting the
superiority of actuarial assessments, clinical and risk management factors are
very important and enhanced levels of care do make an important contribution,
at least in the short term.
Implications for clinical practice
According to our findings, it is possible that risk management strategies
will be more successful if they are feasible, treat active symptoms of mental
illness, address attitudinal, impulsiveness and emotional-regulation problems,
reduce the likelihood of non-compliance and improve insight. There is clearly
a need to use a combination of strategies to characterise individual violence
risk in the long, medium and short term, and this can only be done if clinical
teams have a good knowledge and understanding of idiosyncratic historical,
clinical and risk management factors that apply to individuals. Measures such
as the HCR–20 provide a very clear outline of the factors that
clinicians should consider in the formulation of risk and, like all structured
professional judgement approaches to risk assessment, measures such as the
HCR–20 are designed to help clinicians provide a more transparent and
structured method of recording their risk assessments. Records of assessments
are becoming increasingly important in inquiries into clinical practice
following untoward events, and measures such as the HCR–20 have value in
enhancing the rationale for clinical risk judgements. By reviewing change in
clinical and risk management items, it may also be possible to assess the
impact of current interventions and monitor progress, while systematically
tracking change in all key domains that have been identified as treatment
targets. The latter approach should make intuitive sense to clinicians and
reflect good clinical practice in risk assessment.
|
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
R. J. Snowden, N. S. Gray, J. Taylor, and S. Fitzgerald Assessing Risk of Future Violence Among Forensic Psychiatric Inpatients With the Classification of Violence Risk (COVR) Psychiatr Serv, November 1, 2009; 60(11): 1522 - 1526. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
P. J. M. Banerjee, S. Gibbon, and N. Huband Assessment of personality disorder Adv. Psychiatr. Treat., September 1, 2009; 15(5): 389 - 397. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. Khiroya, T. Weaver, and T. Maden Use and perceived utility of structured violence risk assessments in English medium secure forensic units Psychiatr. Bull., April 1, 2009; 33(4): 129 - 132. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
Q. Haque, A. Cree, C. Webster, and B. Hasnie Best practice in managing violence and related risks Psychiatr. Bull., November 1, 2008; 32(11): 403 - 405. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
N. S. Gray, J. Taylor, and R. J. Snowden Predicting violent reconvictions using the HCR-20 The British Journal of Psychiatry, May 1, 2008; 192(5): 384 - 387. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||