AGGRESSION AMONG PSYCHIATRIC-INPATIENTS IN GREECE

We studied, during 5 consecutive days, the prevalence, types and demog raphic, historical and clinical correlates of overt aggression in a po pulation of 136 acute and chronic inpatients with mainly a diagnosis o f psychotic disorder. Almost one fourth of them exhibited some sort of aggressive behavior. Verbal aggression was by far the most frequent t ype followed - in decreasing order - by physical aggression, aggressio n against property and self-aggression. Past threats of violence and a ttacks on others as well as concurrent motor excitment, agitation, low tolerance of frustration, difficulty in delaying gratification, depre ssive feelings, anger, hostility, affective lability and antisocial be havior differed significantly across the aggressive and the nonaggress ive groups. The best short-term clinical predictors of aggression were different for each type, anger being their sole common predictor, and accounted for various proportions of the corresponding variances rang ing from only 13.3% for self-aggression to 39.2% for verbal aggression .