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Stimulants for impulsive violence in schizophrenia spectrum disordered women: a case series and brief review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2016

Philip Skoretz  and
Chin Tang
Philip Skoretz*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Department of State Hospitals–Patton, Patton, California, USA
Chin Tang
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California–Irvine, Orange, California, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: Philip Skoretz, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Department of State Hospitals–Patton, 3102 East Highland Avenue, Patton, CA 92369, USA. (Email: psychopharmconsult@gmail.com)
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Abstract

High violence prevalence is a common concern for forensic psychiatric settings. Categorizing underlying drivers of violence has helped to direct treatment and management efforts toward psychotic, predatory, and impulsively violent psychopathology. This article describes a series of cases in which clozapine provided adequate control of psychosis in women suffering schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Nevertheless, impulsive violence remained problematic. Add-on methylphenidate was found to be safe and effective in curbing impulsive violent behavior in this select group of patients.

Keywords

Impulsivityschizophreniastimulantsviolencewomen
Type
Case-Based Review Article
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 21 , Issue 6 , December 2016 , pp. 445 - 449
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

†

The authors wish to thank Michael Cummings, MD, Jonathan Meyer, MD, and George Proctor, MD for their assistance.

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