Citation

Gondolf EW, Mulvey EP, Lidz CW. J. Fam. Violence 1989; 4(3): 249-258.

Affiliation

Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh, 15213 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00980426

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The prevalence of family violence reported in psychiatric emergency rooms is relatively undocumented, despite the clinical and legal concern for dangerousness. This study assesses the prevalence of aggression incidents reported to clinicians and physicians during evaluation interviews (n =389).Two-thirds of the total number of subjects reported being involved in an aggression incident sometime in their past. Only 8% reported being the victim of such incidents. About one-half of the cases involved physical assaults; nearly one-half of these assaults had family members as victims. One third of the total cases had been assaultive within 3 months; one sixth had been assaultive within 2 weeks of visiting the hospital. Clinicians and researchers are urged to consider more systematically family violence in psychiatric settings.