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A prospective study of patient assaults on nurses in a provincial psychiatric hospital in Canada
Author(s) -
Cooper A. J.,
Mendonca J. D.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1991.tb03122.x
Subject(s) - psychiatry , prospective cohort study , medicine , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , dementia , allowance (engineering) , psychiatric hospital , suicide prevention , injury prevention , occupational safety and health , poison control , medical emergency , disease , mechanical engineering , surgery , pathology , engineering
A 27‐month prospective study was conducted of patient assaults on nurses in a Canadian psychiatric hospital. Rates were low (4% of the patients committing an assault) and the injuries mostly trivial. Schizophrenics accounted for 43% of attacks, but when allowance was made for the disproportionate number of patients in the hospital with this diagnosis, individuals with mental retardation or dementia were approximately twice as likely to be assaultive as schizophrenics. Repeat assaulters (>4 attacks) were more likely to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.