Psychopathology in Violent Offenders Against Healthcare Workers

Workplace violence in healthcare is gradually becoming a major concern in many countries around the world and research has usually been focused on the victims of violence. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychopathology of individuals who commit violence against healthcare workers. The study included 50 subjects (patient or relative of patient) aged 18-65 years who had committed violence against a healthcare worker (study group) and a control group of 55 subjects with no history of violence. A Sociodemographic Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Form (EPQ-RSF) were administered to both the study group and the control group. A psychiatric disorder was diagnosed in 50% of the violent offenders group and in 16.4% of the control group. It was determined that 54.8% of the patient relatives and 44.4% of the patients themselves who committed a violent act against healthcare workers had at least one psychiatric diagnosis and these rates did not differ between the patients and their relatives (χ² = 0.492, p = 0.483). Comparisons of the scale scores between the groups revealed that the STAXI scores (p < .001), BIS-11 total scores (p < .001), BDI, and BAI scores were statistically significantly higher in the violent offenders group. Considering the higher rates of psychiatric disorders and higher levels of anger and impulsivity among people who commit violent acts against healthcare workers, psychotherapeutic interventions such as stress and anger management interventions, improvement of interaction and communication between patients, their relatives and healthcare workers, and the implementation of rehabilitating punitive programs for violent offenders may be beneficial to reduce the rates of violent behavior against healthcare workers.