Suffering from depression triples your risk of assaulting someone or of committing a robbery. This is the conclusion of a study of 47,000 people.
Depression is often associated with violence against oneself. But violence against others must also be carefully monitored. According to a study published in the Lancet Psychiatry, people with depression are three times more likely to commit a violent crime than the general population.
A team from the University of Oxford (UK) followed 47,000 Swedes diagnosed with depression for 3 years. Their criminal records, as well as their medical records, were reviewed and compared to those of 898,000 people without depression. The state of health of siblings was also taken into account.
Do not stigmatize
Being depressed triples the likelihood of committing a robbery, sexual assault or attack, the researchers conclude. But the rates remain very low: 3.7% of depressed men and 0.5% of women have been convicted of violent crime. In the general population, this is the case for 1.2% of men and 0.2% of women. According to researchers, 46,000 crimes could be linked to depression each year in Britain.
However, we should not stigmatize people suffering from depression, alert the researchers. “The important result is that the majority of people with depression are not prosecuted for violent crimes, and that the rates are lower than those of schizophrenic or bipolar patients, and much lower than those of people abusing alcohol or drugs. drugs, ”said Prof. Seena Fazel, who led the study.
In fact, these results underscore the importance of identifying patients with depression, and directly discussing with them the violent thoughts or behaviors that may be associated with their illness.
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