Aggression against self and aggression against others in violent psychiatric patients.

In spite of recent calls for the study of the comorbidity among behavior disorders, little is known about the coexistence of aggression against self and aggression against others. In this article, the relationship between indices of these 2 types of aggression is examined retrospectively in a sample of 103 male forensic inpatients during a 3-year period. Patients with both self-destructiveness during hospitalization and suicidal behavior before hospitalization engaged in the highest frequency of aggression against others. The implications of these findings for the assessment, prediction, and treatment of violence and self-destructiveness are discussed.