Management tools key
Commenting on the study in an interview, Renee Binder, MD, professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco, said the findings show that, “when patients are out of control, they may act inappropriately, including verbal, physical, and sexual assaults.”
Consequently, “clinicians should be prepared and have management tools,” said Dr. Binder, who was not involved in the research.
She noted that derogatory statements and racial slurs were included among the verbal assaults, which is particularly common in inpatient units and EDs where “patients may be acutely psychotic or manic and out of control,” she said.
However, Dr. Binder pointed out that the investigators did not separate mild and more severe forms of physical and sexual assault.
“If the authors had more finely separated out the types of physical and sexual assaults, they probably would have found that mild types of assaults are much more common than more severe assaults,” she said.
Dr. Pereira-Sanchez’s fellowship program is funded by Fundacion Alicia Koplowitz. He and Dr. Binder have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article originally appeared on Medscape.com.