Risk factors for aggressive behaviour are of limited value in predicting the violent behaviour of acute involuntarily admitted patients.

Violent behaviour within 8 and 28 days respectively was related by a multivariate statistical procedure to risk factors for aggressive behaviour in an epidemiologically representative sample of 105 acute involuntarily admitted patients. Previous violent behaviour by the patient was found to correlate significantly with aggressive behaviour during the first 8 days of admission, and abuse of drugs other than alcohol was found to correlate significantly with aggressive behaviour during the first 28 days of admission. Determination coefficients were very low, and it is concluded that risk factors associated with aggressive behaviour are of limited value in predicting aggressive behaviour among acute involuntarily admitted inpatients.