Psychosis and Violence: Stories, Fears, and Reality

Individuals with psychosis are often feared. In fact, they are themselves likely to be victims of violence; however, the main aim of this review is to provide an overview of the evidence on relations between psychosis and violence to others. The terms psychosis and violence were used in a literature search limited to the Cochrane Library and PubMed, a manual search of 8 journals, and a follow-up of additional references in the articles found. The overview draws on new empirical data and major reviews. Almost all sound epidemiologic data on psychosis and violence dates from 1990. There is consistency on a small but significant relation between schizophrenia and violent acts. Since then …