Psychiatric patients show different coping styles during aggression compared to controls

Abstract

Introduction

Aggression and violence are common phenomena, potentially experienced by everyone.

Objectives

To demonstrate that coping patterns to face aggression and violence may exhibit differential group features.

Aims

To find differences in coping styles during moments of high aggression in psychiatric patients compared to non-affected controls.

Methods

We evaluated 34 outpatients from the section of psychiatry of university Federico II of Naples by two psychometric scales: AQ to evaluate aggression levels and Brief-COPE for coping patterns. Outcomes were compared with that of 34 non-affected controls, recruited from the university student population. Pearson's correlation was used to find relationships between aggression levels and coping skills in these two groups.

Results

We found significant differences between groups in multiple scale items and in the correlation measures, e.g. the use of expression was completely reversed in this two samples according to aggression levels.

Conclusions

These results show that aggression is experienced differentially and with different coping styles by psychiatric patients compared to non-affected controls.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.