[The use of the Brøset Violence Checklist within forensic psychiatry]

It is well known that structured short-term risk assessment tools contribute to predicting physically aggressive behavior in patients in acute psychiatry.

To research whether the Brøset-Violence-Checklist (BVC), an instrument for short-term prediction of violence of psychiatric inpatients, can be used in forensic psychiatry and how the use of the BVC is experienced.

Twice every 24 hours at more or less fixed times, a BVC score was registered for all patients who stayed in a crisis department within a Forensic Psychiatric Center in 2019. The BVC total scores were then related to physically aggressive incidents. In addition, focus groups and interviews were conducted with sociotherapists to examine experiences with the use of the BVC.

The analysis showed a significant predictive value of the BVC total score (AUC = 0.69; p < 0.01). Moreover, the sociotherapists experienced the BVC as user-friendly and efficient.

The BVC has good predictive value to forensic psychiatry. This is especially true for those patients for whom personality disorder is not part of the primary classification.