Mental illness alone cannot predispose people to violence, but mental illness combined with substance abuse may be a strong predictor of future violence, according to a study in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

 

Eric B. Elbogen, Ph.D, lead author of the study, and assistant professor in the forensic psychiatry program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, said the study indicates that there is no link between mental illness and violence. Other factors such as “history of past violence or substance abuse or a recent divorce or loss of one’s job are much more predictive of future violence than mental illness alone.”

 

The findings are based on interviews of 34,653 people who gave details, from 2001 to 2003, about their mental health, history of violence and other issues. Three years later, these people were asked about whether during that period they had engaged in violent acts such as attacking someone with a knife or gun, injuring someone in a physical fight or arson and sexual assault.

 

The researchers found that those who reported drug or alcohol abuse and also had severe mental illness were three times more likely to have been violent, compared with those reporting just mental illness.

 

“The reality is that you still have people with mental illness who do commit violent acts. But what this shows is that there are non-mentally ill people who commit violent acts, too,” Elbogen said.

 

According to the findings, younger age, male gender, history of violence, juvenile detention, recent divorce, unemployment, criminal parent, physical abuse history, and recent victimization were more likely to predict violence.