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A STUDY OF AGGRESSION AMONG REFERRALS TO A COMMUNITY‐BASED PSYCHIATRY OF OLD AGE SERVICE
Author(s) -
GIBBONS PAT,
GAN MIRIAM,
WRIGLEY MARGO
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199703)12:3<384::aid-gps525>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - aggression , psychiatry , service (business) , psychology , gerontology , geriatric psychiatry , medicine , economy , economics
Objective . The aims of the study were to examine the prevalence of aggressive behaviour in a non‐selected community‐based population, to identify clinical and sociodemographic variables associated with aggression and to examine the relationship between aggression and outcome at 2‐year follow‐up. Design . Case series, using the Ryden Aggression Scale as a retrospective measure of aggression. Setting . A community‐based specialist psychiatry of old age service. Participants . All referrals to the service over a 3‐month period. Results . Of the 42 subjects included in the study, 25 patients had a diagnosis of dementia. Aggressive behaviour was reported in 18 patients, this being verbal only in nine cases and both verbal and physical in nine cases. Sexual aggression and self‐injurious behaviour were each reported in one case only. Aggression was found to be positively associated with a diagnosis of dementia and high physical dependency but was not found to be associated with age, sex, physical illness or the use of psychotropic medication. At 2‐year follow‐up, aggressive patients were found to have a higher rate of admission to psychiatric inpatient or residential care and tended to have a higher use of neuroleptic drugs. Conclusions . These findings suggest that aggression is a significant problem for community‐based elderly people and their carers, may increase the likelihood of admission into long‐term care and that a reliable instrument to measure aggression would be useful in the clinical assessment of this population. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.