Violence and Mental Illness — How Strong Is the Link?

Following up on my posting of the "This Man has a Problem" video yesterday, Dr. Richard A. Friedman concluded the following in a recent article published by the New England Journal of Medicine:

"The challenge for medical practitioners is to remain aware that some of their psychiatric patients do in fact pose a small risk of violence, while not losing sight of the larger perspective — that most people who are violent are not mentally ill, and most people who are mentally ill are not violent."

He also noted:

"A study that compared the prevalence of violence in a group of psychiatric patients during the year after hospital discharge with the rate in the community in which the patients lived showed no difference in the risk of violence between treated patients and people without a psychiatric disorder. Thus, symptoms of psychiatric illness, rather than the diagnosis itself, appear to confer the risk of violent behavior."

An interview with Dr. Friedman can be heard by clicking here.