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Assaults on psychiatrists – a three year retrospective study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Martin O'Sullivan  and
David Meagher
David Meagher
Affiliation:
St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin 4, Ireland
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Abstract

Objectives: This study investigates the problem of assaults on psychiatrists by their patients.

Method: A postal questionnaire was circulated to 178 psychiatrists and trainees working in the Dublin area enquiring about assaults experienced in the previous three years.

Results: Of those 147 (82%) who responded 57 (39%) had been assaulted. There were few discriminating factors between those assaulted and those not but those in child psychiatry were less likely and those in general adult psychiatry were more likely to have been the victim of an assault. Only 10% of respondents had received any formal training in violence management. Assailants tended to be male (63%) and known to the doctor involved (71%). Personality disorder (37%), schizophrenia (29%) and substance abuse (26%) were common assailant diagnoses. Management responses to the assaults were generally internal with administrative staff involvement in only four cases.

Conclusions: Factors which potentially protect or expose clinicians to a greater risk of assault are not well defined and need to be further explored. Simple clinician or patient variables are not especially predictive of violence risk. Clinicians need to acquaint themselves better with the basic practices of violence prevention and management. External measures (such as involving administration) could be used more frequently to combat this common problem.

Keywords

AssaultViolence
Type
Original Papers
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 1998 , pp. 54 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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