Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
There is increasing evidence that certain groups of mentally ill patients are at greater risk of behaving violently. The majority of the violence occurs in established cases of schizophrenia who have drifted out of ongoing care and supervision. Improved community services and more rigorous follow-up of at-risk groups could both improve the quality of life for these patients and reduce the chance of their acting violently.