AP51847

Science Prompt

There was a study done showing that people who treat their psychiatric illnesses with antipsychotic medication are almost half as likely to commit a violent crime as they would be without these medications(The Lancet). Antipsychotic drugs are used for many disorders, mostly for treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. There has been evidence to support that those who use these drugs, such as clozapine and risperidone,(The Lancet) are less likely to relapse and be re-hospitalized. It wasn’t until this study that they were able to conclude they also reduce violent behavior. Professor Sheilagh Hodgins of Universite de Montreal, Canada, and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, wrote “This well executed study provides a basis for future clinical studies aiming to establish how antipsychotics and mood stabilizers can be used to reduce aggressive behavior. The study illustrates again that de-identified data from national registers that were established for administrative reasons can be used by epidemiologists to identify potential strategies to reduce health related social problems (The Lancet).” Is this medication really the reason behind the less violent behavior or could there be some other cause and the medication just a correlation (Wood, 17). This reminds me of one of Barrett’s Laws, “Beware the plausible, especially if it works.”

References: The Lancet. "Antipsychotic medication associated with reduced rate of violent crime." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 May 2014. .

Wood, Samuel E., Ellen R. Green. Wood, and Denise Roberts. Boyd. // Mastering the World of Psychology //. Third ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2008. Print.

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