The reduction of violence in a chronic psychiatric inpatient group: a social technique

A group of 72 chronic psychiatric inpatients comprised of the most violent and the least violent patients on a long term unit were studied prospectively for one year. The impact of increasing the doctor-patient contact in the second six months on the frequency of violent episodes was studied. The contact was brief and structured. Changes in staff, medication and the number of family visits were not found to be significant. The increased in contact seemed to have been highly significant. Violent episodes were reduced by 82% and had completely ceased by the last month of the study.