Childhood maltreatment, violence and social cognition in forensic psychiatric patients

Childhood maltreatment is connected to increased risk of violent offending and psychopathology. Mentalisation and emotion regulation are reduced in individuals who have experienced severe childhood maltreatment, and are involved in violent behaviour and psychotic disorders. The current study investigated if childhood maltreatment is more prevalent and more severe in forensic psychiatric patients than in community controls, if those who have committed violent acts that are more severe report a higher severity of childhood maltreatment, and if mentalisation and emotion regulation are reduced in forensic psychiatric patients. Four types of childhood maltreatment, neglect, psychological, sexual and physical abuse, were investigated separately with the use of the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse semi-structured interview. All types of childhood maltreatment were more prevalent and more severe in forensic psychiatric patients as compared to community controls.The results suggest that different types of childhood maltreatment have different effects on mentalisation, emotion regulation and violence. Forensic psychiatric patients had lower mentalisation scores and higher emotion dysregulation. There was no significant relationship between severity of childhood maltreatment and severity of violence. Stockholm Forensic Psychiatry Projec