Understanding and Treating Violent Psychiatric Patients

Book excerpt: One of the major challenges for mental health professionals today is to successfully treat violent patients. The mental health professional is obligated to go beyond containment and control to provide understanding, complete assessment and accurate diagnosis, and humane and effective treatment. Understanding and Treating Violent Psychiatric Patients is a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive guide to assessment, management, understanding, and treatment of violent patients. The first section encompasses practical guides to treatment for both children and adults. It discusses commonly encountered problems in the treatment of violent adult inpatients and includes a brief guide to pharmacological treatments. A chapter is devoted to the treatment of abnormal aggression in children and adolescents. The second section delves into a more conceptual and broadly focused approach to understanding violent patients. It covers the relationship between dissociation and violence, as well as the relationship between psychiatric disorders and violence, and addresses impulse control and the treatment of impulsive patients. Heavily researched and clinically focused, this new title is a "must read" for psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric social workers, psychiatric nurses, or any mental health professional needing a better approach to understanding and treating violent patients.