Am J Psychiatry 1986; 143:367-370
Copyright © 1986 by American Psychiatric Association
Homicide and depression
M Rosenbaum and B Bennett
The relationship of depression to homicide has been overlooked in clinical
psychiatry. The authors report on six homicidal depressed control compare
them with nonhomicidal depressed control subjects. They also analyze data
from 81 case summaries found elsewhere in the literature. Their preliminary
data suggest that homicidal depressed patients are more likely to have a
personality disorder, to have been physically abused as a child, to abuse
alcohol or drugs, and to be suicidal than are nonhomicidal depressed
patients. In homicidal patients, the event precipitating the depression is
more likely to be sexual infidelity, either real or fantasized.
