Court decisions setting limits on the use of medication in psychiatric
hospitals often assume that psychiatrists use medications inappropriately
in response to patients' violent acts. No empirical data have existed to
support or refute this assumption. The authors examined the types and doses
of antipsychotic medications received by 45 violent patients and 48 control
subjects. They found no significant differences in type and dose of
medication before the violent act and no significant changes afterward.
Violent patients tended to be on somewhat higher doses at discharge than
control patients. The judicial concern that psychotropic medications will
automatically be abused or overused is not supported by these results.Abstract Teaser