Schizophrenia, noncompliance and violent behavior in civilly committed patients

Background The relationship between types of antipsychotic drug regime compliance and reported violent behavior in the context of emergency civil commitment has not been extensively examined. Methods. All civilly committed patients who had been interviewed by two psychiatrists during the year 1997 (n = 389) were assessed for the type of drug regime compliance and violent behavior 2 weeks prior to civil commitment. Results. The patients who were diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and who were consistently refusing antipsychotic drug regime (n = 89) showed more violent behavior prior to assessment in comparison to partial noncomplier schizophrenic patients (n = 86). Conclusion. During the emergency civil commitment process, when a short-time prediction of violence must be made, the type of antipsychotic discontinuation might be a useful supplement to clinical judgement of dangerousness, a suggestion which has to be validated.