Violence in relation to cognitive deficits and symptom severity in a sample of Egyptian patients with schizophrenia

Tarek Ahmed Okasha, Abdel Nasser Omar, Doha Elserafy, Samar Serry and Eman S Rabie

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2023, vol. 69, issue 3, 689-699

Abstract: Background: Patient with schizophrenia are significantly more likely to be violent than general population; and the consequences of this violence risk are often very serious for the patients, their caregivers, and the entire community. Aim: To assess the risk of violence in patients with schizophrenia and its correlation with severity of symptoms and cognitive functions. Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study conducted in Okasha institute of psychiatry including 50 patients with schizophrenia compared to 50 healthy control group regarding violence risk as assessed by Historical, Clinical, and Risk Management-20 (HCR-20), case group was assessed using Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), cognitive functions were assessed by Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Trail Making Test (TMT) Part A and B, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS). Results: There was a statistically significant difference between case and control groups regarding risk of violence where 58% of the case group were found to have risk of violence compared to only 18% in the control group. There was a significant correlation between this risk of violence and period of untreated psychosis, no of episodes, and history of substance use; also was significantly correlated with PANSS and Wisconsin card sorting test subscales. Regarding logistic regression analysis for factors affecting violence risk; total PANSS score and history of substance use were significant independent factors that increase violence risk. Conclusion: Violence risk in patient with schizophrenia is a cardinal factor that may affect life of the patients, their family, and society; this risk can be affected by different factors including severity of symptoms, no of episodes, history of substance use, and cognitive function of the patients.

Keywords: Schizophrenia; violence risk; HCR 20; PANSS; cognitive functions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640221132706 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:69:y:2023:i:3:p:689-699

DOI: 10.1177/00207640221132706

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().