Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T17:45:49.426Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assaults on Staff by Psychiatric In-patients

A Critical Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Robin M. Haller  and
Robert H. Deluty
Robin M. Haller
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent surveys indicate that the frequency of assaults on psychiatric staff by in-patients has increased substantially over the past decade. With patient assaultiveness becoming of greater concern, the need to predict, anticipate, and avoid confrontations with potentially assaultive patients has grown. Regrettably, the vast majority of studies examining the nature, correlates, and predictors of in-patient assaultiveness suffer from methodological problems that limit the validity of their findings.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 2 , February 1988 , pp. 174 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, W. N., Kreeger, C. & Zeigler, P. (1983) Patient violence in a private psychiatric hospital. In Assaults within Psychiatric Facilities (eds Lion, J. R. & Reid, W.H.). Orlando, Florida: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Conn, L. M. & Lion, J. R. (1983) Assaults in a university hospital. In Assaults within Psychiatric Facilities (eds Lion, J. R. & Reid, W. H.). Orlando, Florida: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Edwards, J. G. & Reid, W. H. (1983) Violence in psychiatric facilities in Europe and the United States. In Assaults within Psychiatric Facilities (eds Lion, J. R. & Reid, W. H.). Orlando, Florida: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Feshbach, S. (1970) Aggression. In Carmichael's Manual of Child Psychology, Vol. II (ed. Mussen, P. H.). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Fottrell, E. (1980) A study of violent behaviour among patients in psychiatric hospitals. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 216–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fottrell, E., Bewley, T. & Squizzoni, M. (1978) A study of aggressive and violent behavior among group psychiatric inpatients. Medicine, Science, and the Law, 18, 66–69.Google Scholar
Hedlund, J. L. & Vieweg, B. W. (1980) The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS): a comprehensive review. Journal of Operational Psychiatry, 11, 48–65.Google Scholar
Hodgkinson, P. E., McIvor, L. & Phillips, M. (1985) Patient assaults on staff in a psychiatric hospital: a two-year retrospective study. Medicine, Science, and the Law, 25, 288–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holt, R. R. (1971) Assessing Personality. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Infantino, J. A. & Musingo, S. Y. (1985) Assaults and injuries among staff with and without training in aggression control techniques. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 36, 1312–1314.Google Scholar
Ionno, J. A. (1983) A prospective study of assaultive behavior in female psychiatric inpatients. In Assaults within Psychiatric Facilities (eds Lion, J. R. & Reid, W. H.). Orlando, Florida: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Lion, J. R., Snyder, W. & Merrill, G. L. (1981) Underreporting of assaults on staff in a state hospital. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 32, 497–498.Google ScholarPubMed
Monahan, J. (1984) The prediction of violent behavior: toward a second generation of theory and policy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 10–15.Google Scholar
New York State Commission On Quality Of Care For The Mentally Disabled (1982) Five-year Comprehensive Plan: Mental Health Services. New York: New York State Commission on Quality of Care for the Mentally Disabled.Google Scholar
Pearson, M., Wilmot, E. & Padi, M. (1986) A study of violent behaviour among in-patients in a psychiatric hospital. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 232–235.Google Scholar
Penna, M. W. (1983) The effect of the milieu on assaults. In Assaults within Psychiatric Facilities (eds Lion, J. R. & Reid, W. H.). Orlando, Florida: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, C. R., Solomon, G., Plutchik, R., Mizruchi, M. S. & Weiner, A. (1985) Variables that predict assaultiveness in child psychiatric inpatients. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 24, 775–780.Google Scholar
Rossi, A. M., Jacobs, M., Monteleone, M., Olsen, R., Surber, R. W., Winkler, E. L. & Wommack, A. (1986) Characteristics of psychiatric patients who engage in assaultive or other fear-inducing behaviors. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174, 154–160.Google Scholar
Ruben, I., Wolkon, G. & Yamamoto, J. (1980) Physical attacks on psychiatric residents by patients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 168, 243–245.Google Scholar
Shader, R. I., Jackson, A. H., Harmatz, J. S. & Appelbaum, P. S. (1977) Patterns of violent behavior among schizophrenic inpatients. Diseases of the Nervous System, 38, 13–16.Google Scholar
Soloff, P. H. (1983) Seclusion and restraint, in Assaults within Psychiatric Facilities (eds Lion, J. R. & Reid, W. H.). Orlando, Florida: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Subcommittee On The Handicapped Of The Committee On Labor And Human Resources (1985) Staff Report on the Institutionalized Mentally Disabled (Senate Hearing, 99–50, Pt 2). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Tanke, E. D. & Yesavage, J. A. (1985) Characteristics of assaultive patients who do and do not provide visible cues of potential violence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 1409–1413.Google Scholar
Tardiff, K. (1981) Assault in hospitals and placement in the community. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 93, 33–39.Google Scholar
Tardiff, K. (1984) Characteristics of assaultive patients in private hospitals. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 1232–1235.Google Scholar
Tardiff, K. & Sweillam, A. (1979) Age and assaultive behavior in mental patients. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 30, 709–711.Google Scholar
Tardiff, K. & Sweillam, A. (1982) Assaultive behaviour among chronic psychiatric inpatients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 212–215.Google Scholar
Wenk, E., Robison, J. O. & Smith, G. W. (1972) Can violence be predicted? Crime and Delinquency, 18, 393–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werner, P. D., Rose, T. L. & Yesavage, J. A. (1983a) Reliability, accuracy, and decision-making strategy in clinical predictions of imminent dangerousness. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 815–825.Google Scholar
Werner, P. D., Yesavage, J. A., Becker, J. M., Brunsting, D. W. & Isaacs, J. S. (1983b) Hostile words and assaultive behavior on an acute inpatient psychiatric unit. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 171, 385–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitman, R. M., Armao, B. B. & Dent, O. B. (1976) Assault on the therapist. American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 426–429.Google ScholarPubMed
Yesavage, J. A. (1983) Bipolar illness: correlates of dangerous inpatient behaviour. British Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 554–557.Google Scholar
Yesavage, J. A. (1984) Correlates of dangerous behavior by schizophrenics in hospital. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 18, 225–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.