Neuropsychological Impairment and Its Association with Violence Risk in Japanese Forensic Psychiatric Patients: A Case-Control Study

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2016 Jan 30

PMID 26824701

Citations 5

Authors

Hirofumi Nishinaka

Jun Nakane

Takako Nagata

Atsushi Imai

Noriomi Kuroki

Noriko Sakikawa

Mayu Omori

Osamu Kuroda

Naotsugu Hirabayashi

Yoshito Igarashi

Kenji Hashimoto

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: In Japan, the legislation directing treatment of offenders with psychiatric disorders was enacted in 2005. Neuropsychological impairment is highly related to functional outcomes in patients with psychiatric disorders, and several studies have suggested an association between neuropsychological impairment and violent behaviors. However, there have been no studies of neuropsychological impairment in forensic patients covered by the Japanese legislation. This study is designed to examine the neuropsychological characteristics of forensic patients in comparison to healthy controls and to assess the relationship between neuropsychological impairment and violence risk.

Methods: Seventy-one forensic patients with psychiatric disorders and 54 healthy controls (matched by age, gender, and education) were enrolled. The CogState Battery (CSB) consisting of eight cognitive domains, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) to test emotion-based decision making, and psychological measures of violence risk including psychopathy were used.

Results: Forensic patients exhibited poorer performances on all CSB subtests and the IGT than controls. For each group, partial correlational analyses indicated that poor IGT performance was related to psychopathy, especially antisocial behavior. In forensic patients, the CSB composite score was associated with risk factors for future violent behavior, including stress and noncompliance with remediation attempts.

Conclusion: Forensic patients with psychiatric disorders exhibit a wide range of neuropsychological impairments, and these findings suggest that neuropsychological impairment may increase the risk of violent behavior. Therefore, the treatment of neuropsychological impairment in forensic patients with psychiatric disorders is necessary to improve functional outcomes as well as to prevent violence.

Citing Articles

Decision Making, Emotion Recognition and Childhood Traumatic Experiences in Murder Convicts Imprisoned with Aggravated Life Sentence: A Prison Study.

Cikrikcili U, Yildirim E, Buker S, Ger C, Erozden O, Gurvit H Noro Psikiyatr Ars. 2025; 62(1):20-26.

PMID: 40046194 PMC: 11877374. DOI: 10.29399/npa.28778.

Positive and negative syndrome scale in forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Buizza C, Strozza C, Sbravati G, de Girolamo G, Ferrari C, Iozzino L Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2022; 21(1):36.

PMID: 36088451 PMC: 9463849. DOI: 10.1186/s12991-022-00413-2.

Acceptability of Intimate Partner Violence among Male Offenders: The Role of Set-Shifting and Emotion Decoding Dysfunctions as Cognitive Risk Factors.

Romero-Martinez A, Lila M, Gracia E, Rodriguez C, Moya-Albiol L Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019; 16(9).

PMID: 31052264 PMC: 6539109. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16091537.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Decision-Making in Offender Populations with Mental Disorder.

Jones K, Hewson T, Sales C, Khalifa N Neuropsychol Rev. 2019; 29(2):244-258.

PMID: 30798419 PMC: 6560009. DOI: 10.1007/s11065-018-09397-x.

Impaired visual, working, and verbal memory in first-episode, drug-naive patients with major depressive disorder in a Chinese population.

Chen C, Jiang W, Wang W, Ma X, Li Y, Wu J PLoS One. 2018; 13(4):e0196023.

PMID: 29684091 PMC: 5912727. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196023.

References

Hansson L . Determinants of quality of life in people with severe mental illness. Acta Psychiatr Scand Suppl. 2006; (429):46-50. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2005.00717.x. View

Weiss E . Neuroimaging and neurocognitive correlates of aggression and violence in schizophrenia. Scientifica (Cairo). 2013; 2012:158646. PMC: 3820648. DOI: 10.6064/2012/158646. View

Barry D, Petry N . Predictors of decision-making on the Iowa Gambling Task: independent effects of lifetime history of substance use disorders and performance on the Trail Making Test. Brain Cogn. 2007; 66(3):243-52. PMC: 2292486. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2007.09.001. View

Fond G, Bayard S, Capdevielle D, Del-Monte J, Mimoun N, Macgregor A . A further evaluation of decision-making under risk and under ambiguity in schizophrenia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2012; 263(3):249-57. DOI: 10.1007/s00406-012-0330-y. View

Naudts K, Hodgins S . Neurobiological correlates of violent behavior among persons with schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 2005; 32(3):562-72. PMC: 2632244. DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbj036. View

Kugo A, Terada S, Ishizu H, Takeda T, Sato S, Habara T . Quality of life for patients with schizophrenia in a Japanese psychiatric hospital. Psychiatry Res. 2006; 144(1):49-56. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2005.06.012. View

Mitchell D, Colledge E, Leonard A, Blair R . Risky decisions and response reversal: is there evidence of orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction in psychopathic individuals?. Neuropsychologia. 2002; 40(12):2013-22. DOI: 10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00056-8. View

Bechara A, Van der Linden M . Decision-making and impulse control after frontal lobe injuries. Curr Opin Neurol. 2005; 18(6):734-9. DOI: 10.1097/01.wco.0000194141.56429.3c. View

Matsuoka K, Uno M, Kasai K, Koyama K, Kim Y . Estimation of premorbid IQ in individuals with Alzheimer's disease using Japanese ideographic script (Kanji) compound words: Japanese version of National Adult Reading Test. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2006; 60(3):332-9. DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1819.2006.01510.x. View

10.

Losel F, Schmucker M . Psychopathy, risk taking, and attention: a differentiated test of the somatic marker hypothesis. J Abnorm Psychol. 2004; 113(4):522-9. DOI: 10.1037/0021-843X.113.4.522. View

11.

McCleery A, Addington J, Addington D . Substance misuse and cognitive functioning in early psychosis: a 2 year follow-up. Schizophr Res. 2006; 88(1-3):187-91. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.06.040. View

12.

Keefe R, Goldberg T, Harvey P, Gold J, Poe M, Coughenour L . The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia: reliability, sensitivity, and comparison with a standard neurocognitive battery. Schizophr Res. 2004; 68(2-3):283-97. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2003.09.011. View

13.

Millan M, Agid Y, Brune M, Bullmore E, Carter C, Clayton N . Cognitive dysfunction in psychiatric disorders: characteristics, causes and the quest for improved therapy. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2012; 11(2):141-68. DOI: 10.1038/nrd3628. View

14.

Fujii D, Wylie A, Nathan J . Neurocognition and long-term prediction of quality of life in outpatients with severe and persistent mental illness. Schizophr Res. 2004; 69(1):67-73. DOI: 10.1016/S0920-9964(03)00122-1. View

15.

Morgan A, Lilienfeld S . A meta-analytic review of the relation between antisocial behavior and neuropsychological measures of executive function. Clin Psychol Rev. 2000; 20(1):113-36. DOI: 10.1016/s0272-7358(98)00096-8. View

16.

Bellani M, Tomelleri L, Brambilla P . Emotion-based decision making in schizophrenia: evidence from the Iowa Gambling Task. Epidemiol Psichiatr Soc. 2009; 18(2):104-6. View

17.

Palmer B, Dunn L, Appelbaum P, Mudaliar S, Thal L, Henry R . Assessment of capacity to consent to research among older persons with schizophrenia, Alzheimer disease, or diabetes mellitus: comparison of a 3-item questionnaire with a comprehensive standardized capacity instrument. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005; 62(7):726-33. DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.62.7.726. View

18.

Dolan M, Fullam R . Psychopathy and functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygenation level-dependent responses to emotional faces in violent patients with schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry. 2009; 66(6):570-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.03.019. View

19.

Fujii D, Tokioka A, Lichton A, Hishinuma E . Ethnic differences in prediction of violence risk with the HCR-20 among psychiatric inpatients. Psychiatr Serv. 2005; 56(6):711-6. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ps.56.6.711. View

20.

Fioravanti M, Carlone O, Vitale B, Cinti M, Clare L . A meta-analysis of cognitive deficits in adults with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Neuropsychol Rev. 2005; 15(2):73-95. DOI: 10.1007/s11065-005-6254-9. View