None of us are immune from the effects of Mental Illness

None of us are immune from being affected by mental illness.

Posted from the blog : Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

An Update on My Friend

Earlier this month, I told you all about my friend "Jim" from high school who had shown up at the CJC looking for me after a six-year absence. If you will recall, Jim had some serious mental issues that had arisen from years of drug use, and had now manifested in a deep sense of paranoia. The target of Jim's paranoia was his father.

I had called Jim's dad after Jim left the CJC and just let him know what was going on. For all I knew, Jim's dad could have been looking for him. Jim's dad was keenly aware of all of Jim's problem, but like me, he had no idea what to do about it. He was frustrated and saddened, and had no idea why his son had so much hatred for him. He also had no clue as to what to do to help his son.

I talked to him for awhile about civil commitments and mental health warrants, which I know virtually nothing about. I told him to talk to a family lawyer, or even a psychiatrist about what could legally be done about Jim.

Jim's dad called me last week and told me that Jim had shown up at his home, demanding that he (Jim's dad) accompany him to the police department to take a polygraph examination about the plot against Jim's life. Jim's dad obliged him, and they went to the police station.

Once they explained the story to the police, Jim was taken away to a psychiatric hospital for a 72 hour observation. For some reason, the hospital released him in about 12 hours.

Yesterday, I got another call from Jim's father.

Jim's father had been closing up his business for the evening and was the only person there, when Jim showed up at the lot.

"Either you're going to die tonight, or I am," Jim told him. Jim's dad tried to walk away, but Jim attacked him and assaulted him. He was able to call the police and Jim, yet again was arrested.

This time, there's a Class A Misdemeanor of Assault-Family Violence charge against Jim.

Jim's father has no desire to see his son punished for attacking him, but he doesn't know how to protect himself or help his son anymore. Sadly, it's getting thrown to the criminal courts to deal with, and nobody has ever really given the criminal system a Gold Star for dealing with the mentally ill.

But at this point, I don't know that any of us have any other options in mind. Hopefully, Jim will get sent away for an evaluation, and maybe somebody will force him to get some help. This time he doesn't have the option of walking away from the psychiatrist like he has apparently done in the past.

We shall see. For now, I'm just glad that nobody was seriously injured.

That's a blessing in and of itself, because inside of Jim's car, the police found a hammer that he had purchased a few minutes before arriving at his father's business. Thankfully, he left it in the car.

I'll keep you posted as things develop.

Medication Reduces Violence in Some Schizophrenics

From US News & World Report:
Medication Reduces Violence in Some Schizophrenics
Treating psychosis alone may not end risk; older drugs as good as newer ones, study finds
Posted July 3, 2008

THURSDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- Taking prescription medications can help reduce violent behavior in some schizophrenia patients, Duke researchers report.
It included 1,445 schizophrenia patients randomly selected to receive one of five antipsychotic medications: olanzapine, perphenanize, quetiapine, risperidone or ziprasidone.
Patient violence declined significantly when patients took their medications as prescribed, but only among patients whose prior risk for violence could be linked to psychotic problems. There was little or no improvement in a subgroup of patients with a history of childhood conduct problems who were more likely to be violent at the start of the study.
The study also found that older antipsychotics are as effective as newer drugs in reducing violent behavior.
"Contrary to the expectations of many clinicians and some research, this study found no benefit for newer medications over an older medication in reducing the risk for violence over the six-month study period," study author Jeffrey Swanson, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, said in a prepared statement. "In fact, one of the newer medications, quetiapine, performed worse than the first-generation drug perphenanize."
The findings were published in the July issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
"This is the first large randomized controlled study to compare the effectiveness of several commonly prescribed medications for schizophrenia on reducing community violence," Swanson said. "Serious violent behavior is not frequent among people with schizophrenia, but when it does occur, the results can be costly and tragic."
"In the past, we've not understood very well why a small proportion of patients with schizophrenia become seriously violent, while most do not -- and why medication seems to prevent violent behavior in some and not others," study co-author Marvin Swartz, a professor of psychiatry, said in a prepared statement.
"These findings tell us that people with schizophrenia may behave violently for reasons not directly related to their mental illness. If that's the case, then treatment for psychotic symptoms alone may not eliminate the risk of violence," Swartz said.