Schizophrénie et double parricide : à propos d'une observation clinique

[Social care for patients hospitalized in units for difficult patients]

The units for difficult patients are secure psychiatric wards that receive people suffering from mental illnesses with a risk of dangerous behaviour. Within the framework of the global care of these patients, the intervention of social service assistants plays an essential role. The objective is to induce the psychosocial benefits necessary for the stabilization and evolution of these patients.

[Management of patients with addictions in units for difficult patients]

The links between mental pathologies and violent acts, which can go as far as homicide, are a major concern for many mental health professionals. Addictive co-morbidities, which are increasingly frequent, are an additional risk factor for some of these patients to commit dangerous acts. Psychiatric and psychological care for pathological perpetrators of such violence can be provided under certain conditions in units for difficult patients, with addiction treatment if necessary.

[Therapeutic education for patients with schizophrenia]

Schizophrenia is a chronic and complex mental illness with a multifactorial aetiology, resulting from the interaction between neurobiological and environmental factors. Affecting approximately 1% of the world's population, it generally appears slowly and progressively in subjects aged 15 to 25 years. The polymorphic symptomatology is a source of disability and often of social maladjustment, which implies the implementation, if possible at an early stage, of multi-axis support in order to meet the specific needs of these patients and their families. Therapeutic patient education is one of the targeted interventions that have proven to be effective in improving the quality of life and functional prognosis of the subjects with schizophrenic disorders.

A comparative analysis of media reports of U.S. parricide cases with officially reported national crime data and the psychiatric and psychological literature

This article is a content analysis of 150 unique cases of children killing parents in the United States as reported in the electronic news media. The accuracy of online coverage of U.S. parricide incidents is assessed using two types of resources: officially reported national statistics on known parricidal incidents and the psychological and psychiatric literature on matricide and patricide. Comparisons of news accounts of media-reported U.S. parricide cases with Supplementary Homicide Report data indicate that electronic media coverage of parricide cases focused on the more sensational and unusual parricides. Analyses of these media accounts by offender age found 13 significant differences between juvenile and adult offenders. Ten of these 13 differences related to motive and Heide's parricide offender types (severely abused, severely mentally ill, and dangerously antisocial) and were consistent with the mental health-related literature in this area. The limitations and directions for future research are discussed at length.

Parricide: an empirical analysis of 24 years of U.S. data

Empirical analysis of homicides in which children have killed parents has been limited. The most comprehensive statistical analysis involving parents as victims was undertaken by Heide and used Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data for the 10-year period 1977 to 1986. This article provides an updated examination of characteristics of victims, offenders, and offenses in parricide incidents using SHR data for the 24-year period 1976 to 1999. The analysis proceeds in two stages. First, offense (homicide circumstances), victim (age, race), and offender (age, race, sex) correlates are reported. Second, juvenile involvement in incidents in which parents were killed is examined and a determination is made whether changes in youth involvement in parricide offenses are discernible over the 24-year period. The article concludes with a comparison of findings that emerged from 24 years of data with those from the earlier 10-year period and the discussion of the significance of these findings.