Effects of diagnosis and context on dangerousness

The authors extensively reviewed the medical records of 253 patients hospitalized on a locked, university-based psychiatric unit. They found that schizophrenic and manic patients were more likely than patients with other diagnoses to be assaultive before admission. In the hospital, however, manic patients were the most likely to be assaultive. The results of this study show that the risk of violence among different diagnostic groups of patients varies according to context and is moderated by situational variables. These findings have implications for the assessment of dangerousness before and during hospitalization.