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Introduction
Behaviors Associated with Schizophrenia
Studies have shown that if patients with schizophrenia were not violent before the onset of disease and were not substance abusers, they are unlikely to be violent after they develop schizophrenia. Schizophrenics are not typically violent and often prefer to be left alone. The most common violence is self-inflicted, resulting in suicide or attempted suicide. However, if a patient does become violent, the violence is most likely to be directed against a victim known to the patient and often takes place at home where it is directed towards a family member. The reason for this is not clear but may be due to the patient seeing the caregivers as enemies because they enforce rules and are perceived as authority figures.
Predictors of violence in schizophrenics include:
- History of past violence
- Drug/alcohol abuse
- Male gender
- Poverty
- Unskilled
- Uneducated
- Unmarried
- Failure to take medications
- Paranoid schizophrenia with specific types of hallucinations where voices tell the patient what to do
- Presence of depression - a study by the American Psychiatric Association showed that the risk of violence is 6-7 times higher among patients suffering from both depression and schizophrenia.
