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Murder and psychosis: Neuropsychological profiles of homicide offenders with schizophrenia
Author(s) -
Stratton John,
Brook Michael,
Hanlon Robert E.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.1990
Subject(s) - psychology , homicide , neurocognitive , neuropsychology , psychiatry , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , psychosis , clinical psychology , poison control , cognition , injury prevention , medicine , medical emergency
Background Neurocognitive dysfunction, a core feature of schizophrenia, is thought to contribute to the impulsive violent aggression manifested by some individuals with schizophrenia, but not enough is known about how homicidal individuals with schizophrenia perform on neuropsychological measures. Aims The primary aim of our study was to describe the neuropsychological profiles of homicide offenders with schizophrenia. Supplementary analyses compared the criminal, psychiatric and neuropsychological features of schizophrenic homicide offenders with and without God/Satan/demon‐themed psychotic symptoms. Methods Twenty‐five men and women diagnosed with schizophrenia who had killed another person – 21 convicted of first‐degree murder and 4 found not guilty by reason of insanity – completed neuropsychological testing during forensic evaluations. Results The sample was characterised by extensive neurocognitive impairments, involving executive dysfunction (60%), memory dysfunction (68%) and attentional dysfunction (50%), although those with God/Satan/demon‐themed psychotic symptoms performed better than those with nonreligious psychotic content. Conclusions Our findings indicate that impaired cognition may play an important role in the commission of homicide by individuals with schizophrenia. A subgroup with God/Satan/demon delusions seem sufficiently less impaired that they might be able to engage in metacognitive treatment approaches, aimed at changing their relationship to their psychotic symptoms, thus reducing the perception of power and omnipotence of hallucinated voices and increasing their safety. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.