OBJECTIVE: Evaluate a sample of women with primary psychotic disorders who received a safety measure and were admitted to inpatient forensic psychiatric care (n=8), due to homicide or attempted homicide (article 121 from the Brazilian Penal Code). METHOD: This is a serial cases study. The case records of all the women were retrospectively examined, including technical files and the evaluations of clinical experts. The final psychiatric diagnosis was obtained with a psychiatric evaluation of the patients and the examination of their records, using the diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV-TR. A standardized interview and positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) were also applied. RESULTS: Seven patients received a diagnosis of schizophrenia and one a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder. Most victims (n=10; 60%) were family members of the patients. We found that 37.5% (n=3) of the patients had previous history of violent behavior. According to the initial psychiatric forensic evaluation, five (62.5%) of the patients from the sample had psychotic symptoms. Auditory hallucinations were the most common psychotic symptoms. CONCLUSION: The study of motivational factors for homicidal behavior may provide further knowledge for the implantation of therapeutic interventions in women with mental disorders and an increased risk for homicidal or other violent behaviors.
Homicide; female gender; mental disorder; safety measure
