To investigate the characteristics of the aggressive in-patient in a Danish forensic hospital.

The study was conducted in a forensic psychiatric setting at Psychiatric Centre Sankt Hans. It utilizes data from the three year period between 2008 and 2010. Staff Observation Aggression Scale - Revised (SOAS-R) is used to examine all aggressive incidents during the period mentioned.

212 patients were admitted between 2008 and 2010, the majority of which being mainly men (98.6%) with a diagnosis within ICD10 F20-F29 (79.7%). In total there were 1507 recorded aggressive incidents, and 63.2% of the patients were registered with at least one incident of aggression. Ethnic minorities were overrepresented in comparison to the background population (37.3% vs. 9.5%).

We found that Danish-born patients were more frequently aggressive compared to ethnic minorities (OR 1.8 p = 0.029), and that alcohol/substance abuse was a predictor of aggression (OR 3.47 p =< 0.001). According to age we found that the aggressive patient was significant younger compared to the non-aggressive patient (p = 0.043).

Aggression is a prevalent phenomenon in a forensic psychiatry setting. Patients with at least one aggressive incident as recorded in the SOAS-R are characterized by being male, Danish and abusing. In addition schizophrenia is the most frequent diagnosis in forensic psychiatry at Psychiatric Center Sankt Hans.