Mental illness alone not a trigger for violence John – Severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression does not make a person more violent than anyone else but adding substance abuse does, researchers said on Monday. Government health survey about their mental health, history of violence and other issues.

But those who reported drug or alcohol abuse and also had severe mental illness were three times as likely as those with mental illness alone to have been violent, they added. Experts long have sought to understand the ewan between mental illness and violence. These people were then questioned three years later about whether during that period they had engaged in violence such as sexual assault, attacking someone with a knife or gun, injuring someone in a physical fight or arson.

Daron Elbogen of the University of North Doris and colleagues tracked 34,653 people who gave detailed information from 2001 and 2003 in a U.S.

Those with severe mental illness but no substance abuse were no more likely than the average survey participant to admit to violence during the three years, the researchers wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.