TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - Self-harm as a risk factor for inpatient aggression among women admitted to forensic psychiatric care
JO  - Nordic journal of psychiatry
A1  - Selenius, Heidi
A1  - Leppänen Östman, Sari
A1  - Strand, Susanne
SP  - 554
EP  - 560
VL  - 70
IS  - 7
N2  - BACKGROUND: Inpatient aggression among female forensic psychiatric patients has been shown to be associated with self-harm, that is considered to be a historical risk factor for violence. Research on associations between previous or current self-harm and different types of inpatient aggression is missing. <br><br>AIM: The aim of this register study was to investigate the prevalence of self-harm and the type of inpatient aggression among female forensic psychiatric inpatients, and to study whether the patients' self-harm before and/or during forensic psychiatric care is a risk factor for inpatient aggression. <br><br>METHODS: Female forensic psychiatric patients (n = 130) from a high security hospital were included. <br><br>RESULTS: The results showed that 88% of the female patients had self-harmed at least once during their life and 57% had been physically and/or verbally aggressive towards staff or other patients while in care at the hospital. Self-harm before admission to the current forensic psychiatric care or repeated self-harm were not significantly associated with inpatient aggression, whereas self-harm during care was significantly associated with physical and verbal aggression directed at staff. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: These results pointed towards self-harm being a dynamic risk factor rather than a historical risk factor for inpatient aggression among female forensic psychiatric patients. Whether self-harm is an individual risk factor or a part of the clinical risk factor 'Symptom of major mental illness' within the HCR-20V3 must be further explored among women. Thus, addressing self-harm committed by female patients during forensic psychiatric care seems to be important in risk assessments and the management of violence, especially in reducing violence against staff in high-security forensic psychiatric services.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0803-9488
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08039488.2016.1183707
ID  - ref1
ER  -