Abstract
Although the elderly have been studied as victims of violent behavior, there has been little investigation of this population as perpetrators of violence. Using the method of retrospective chart review, this study examines the issue of violence by geriatric patients with dementia who need acute psychiatric hospitalization. Of 52 patients, 44 percent engaged in physical attacks and/or fear-inducing behavior during the two weeks prior to admission, and 29 percent engaged in similar behavior within the first 72 hours of hospitalization. Married patients and those who lived with family were overrepresented in the group of violent patients. The authors discuss possible explanations and implications of these findings.
Footnotes
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Dr. Ellen Haller is assistant adjunct professor in psychiatry; Dr. Renée L. Binder is associate professor in psychiatry; and Dr. Dale E. McNiel is assistant adjunct professor in psychology at the School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry University of California, San Francisco. Address reprint requests to: Ellen Haller, M.D., Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, 401 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94143
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Presented at the 19th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law in San Francisco, October 20, 1988.
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Funded in part by BRSG Grant S07-RR05755 awarded by the Biomedical Research Support Grant Program. Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health.
- Copyright © 1989, The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
