D E Dyer | PubMed Health

PubMed1992

Parental hostage takers.

Three men presented to a single regional secure psychiatric unit over a twelve-month period, after taking their youngest child hostage in their own homes because of a threatened separation from the family. In each case the episode had escalated because of hostility to police involvement in what for them was a typical domestic upheaval. All cases ended without injury. In each man, substance abuse, a family history of domestic violence and fears of rejection were prominent, and the recent birth of a child may have been an added precipitant. There may be a common family structure which predisposes to such situations. Psychiatric intervention was deemed appropriate, with some evidence of benefit for the two men who engaged in treatment.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Fear and anger in delusional (paranoid) disorder: the association with violence.

We report a series of 15 patients with delusional (paranoid) disorder as defined in DSM-III-R. All were supervised by a forensic psychiatry service after violent or threatening acts. We hypothesised that delusions and actions in these patients would be congruent with an abnormal mood characterised by fear and anger. Informants and the patients indicated a pervasive and persistent abnormality of mood (fear and defensive anger), with delusions and actions that were congruent with this mood during the offence and for over a month before. Other behaviours, such as fleeing or barricading to avoid delusional persecutors, were also consistent with congruence of mood and delusions. In all cases, violent acts and mood were congruent, but in three cases the violent act was unrelated to delusions. Although a study such as this does not demonstrate that the mood abnormality is primary, we believe moods of fear and anger in delusional disorder are not sufficiently recognised as part of the disorder.

Adolescent↗