Psychiatry Research EG

Background Patients with severe mental disorders living in the community are liable to victimization and are considered a high-risk group. However, there is a lack of identification of victimization rate and factors associated with its occurrence among mentally ill patients. Objectives To explore the sociodemographic variables and clinical characteristics related to victimization of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Patients and methods This was a cross-sectional comparative study that included 300 patients (100 patients for each disorder) who were recruited from the inpatient wards and outpatient clinics of the Institute of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University. They were subjected to the following: a designed questionnaire to obtain demographic data, Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., Axis I diagnosis (SCID I-CV), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), Clinical Global Impression (CGI), and the Victimization Questionnaire (VQ). Results Overall, 43.3% of our sample reported being victimized in the past 12 months, with high victimization rate among depressed patients. It was found that all victimized patients were subjected to emotional victimization; however, patients with schizophrenia were exposed to higher rates of physical victimization (93.3%) and miscellaneous victimization (73.3%) in comparison with other groups. It was also found that 33% of patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia had been victimized by their parents, whereas 77% of depressed patients had been victimized by their spouses. Depressed women were the most likely to be victimized followed by male patients with bipolar disorder and patients with schizophrenia. Pattern of victimization was different among the study groups. Depressed patients were mainly perpetrated by their spouses, whereas patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were mainly victimized by their parents. None of the patients reported the victimization events to police, friends, family members, or their physicians. Conclusion Our findings suggest that victimization is common among patients with severe mental illness, with high rates in depressed patients through their spouses. The clinicians should inquire about victimization during their routine assessment and should follow strategy to minimize revictimization of their patients.