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Crime victims who have previously suffered from bipolar disorder may be
expected to incorporate the traumatic imagery, thought, and emotionality
into their manic and depressed episodes.
SCHIZOPHRENIA AND OTHER PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS
Psychotic disorders comprise a group of syndromes, the main commonality of
which is a significant break with reality, characterized by severe disturbances
of mood, thought, and goal-directed action.
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The most common form of psychotic disorder is schizophrenia, which is
a progressive syndrome, usually first presenting in adolescence or early
adulthood (although childhood forms occur) and characterized by delusions
(disturbances of thought and belief) and hallucinations (disturbances of
perception), which are typically auditory (hearing voices), and more rarely,
visual (seeing things).
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Untreated schizophrenics may suffer episodic bouts of delusional and
hallucinatory psychosis, between which they may appear simply odd or
weird, unable to maintain any consistent work activity or social connection.
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Many of these individuals swell the ranks of the street people found in any
major municipality.
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Even if not homeless per se, individuals with schizophrenia are at extremely
high risk for criminal victimization and are also highly likely to be arrested,
usually for misdemeanor crimes such as vagrancy, panhandling, public
urination, shoplifting, simple assault (annoying and harassing passersby),
and drug crimes.
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Delusional disorders are distinguished clinically from schizophrenia by
the fact that the affected individuals may function adequately in most life
areas, despite the presence of isolated, fixed ideas, which are nevertheless
sufficiently out of sync with reality to qualify as delusions.
Training Module on the Right to Mental Health for the Security Sector
by extreme shifts in mood, from elation to depression, usually with an
absence of normal mood in between. For such individuals, there are only
highs and lows, nothing in the emotional middle. The manic phase typically
begins with the individual feeling energized and overconfident or pumped.
He becomes hyperactive and grandiose, spinning all kinds of half-baked,
unrealistic ideas and plans, but being increasingly impulsive and distractible.
Thinking and speech become rapid and forced. Need for sleep decreases
and the individual may be hypersexual.
ALCOHOL AND DRUG INTOXICATION
Drug and alcohol use is a risk factor for both committing a crime and being a
victim of crime. Thus, security sectors and mental health clinicians who work
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