Clinical characteristics and legal consequences of violent behavior: a case of bipolar disorder

The main subject of criminal proceedings is that of criminal responsibility, from this point of view bipolar disorders sometimes seem to be a neglected subject in legal scholarship. Yet they may affect decision-making across the spectrum of the law, especially when manic and psychotic symptoms are implicated. This case studies a 37-year-old woman, diagnosed with bipolar affective in disorder, who attacked the neighbour of her ex-husband during a manic episode with psychotic symptoms. Two groups of those psychotic symptoms are especially remarkable: delusions and experiences of influences playing on her body and thought insertion (threat/control–override symptoms). Hostility against her ex-husband was also implicated in the attack. Researchers have pointed all those symptoms as important predictors of violence, and they have determinant legal correlates.