Letter to the Editor regarding ‘Homicide associated with psychotic illness: What global temporal trends tell us about the association between mental illness and violence’

Tarun Bastiampillai, Seungryeol Lim, Andrew Giam, Prashant Tibrewal

Research output: Contribution to journalLetterpeer-review

Abstract

Can clozapine reduce violent crime in patients with schizophrenia?

Patients with psychosis are 4–10 times more likely to commit homicide, compared with the general population and 2–8 times more likely to commit violence as compared to non-affected members of the general population (Simpson et al., 2021). Worldwide trends of homicide rates for patients with psychosis have been largely unchanged for several decades. While total homicide rates reduced by 50% in Australia between 1993 and 2013, homicide rates for patients with severe mental illness were essentially unchanged (Simpson et al., 2021).

In this correspondence, we respond to the viewpoint by Simpson et al. (2021) on ‘Homicide associated with psychotic illness: What temporal trends tell us about the association between mental illness and violence’. We specifically suggest increasing clozapine utilisation for patients with schizophrenia, to potentially reduce rates of incarceration, violent crime and possibly homicide...
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)148-149
Number of pages2
JournalAustralian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
Volume57
Issue number1
Early online date18 Sept 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2023

Keywords

  • Schizophrenia
  • Crime
  • Homicide
  • Clozapine
  • Psychotic illness

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Letter to the Editor regarding ‘Homicide associated with psychotic illness: What global temporal trends tell us about the association between mental illness and violence’'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this