Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Book

Aggression

In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan.
.
Affiliations
Free Books & Documents
Book

Aggression

Stephen M. Soreff et al.
Free Books & Documents

Excerpt

Aggression and violence remain a central clinical, public health, and safety issue worldwide. In 1996 the World Health Assembly declared violence a major public health issue. As a clinician, you will have to evaluate aggressive patients. This can be a safety issue for your clinical team and the community. In this CME, violence and aggression will be considered together. Aggression is any behavior, including verbal threats, which involves attacking another person, animal, or object with the intent of harming the target. Similarly, violence is intentionally using physical force to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. This CME describes how to review possible causes of aggression as part of taking a comprehensive history and performing a mental status examination to make a diagnosis. The accurate diagnosis of the patient with aggression leads to proper treatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: Stephen Soreff declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Roopma Wadhwa declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Hasan Arif declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

References

    1. Krug EG, Mercy JA, Dahlberg LL, Zwi AB. The world report on violence and health. Lancet. 2002 Oct 05;360(9339):1083-8. - PubMed
    1. Irwin A, Laing C, Mearns K. The impact of patient aggression on community pharmacists: a critical incident study. Int J Pharm Pract. 2013 Feb;21(1):20-7. - PubMed
    1. Alnıak İ, Erkıran M, Mutlu E. Substance use is a risk factor for violent behavior in male patients with bipolar disorder. J Affect Disord. 2016 Mar 15;193:89-93. - PubMed
    1. Kennett MR. Domestic violence. JONAS Healthc Law Ethics Regul. 2000 Sep;2(3):93-101. - PubMed
    1. Chilton MM, Rabinowich JR, Woolf NH. Very low food security in the USA is linked with exposure to violence. Public Health Nutr. 2014 Jan;17(1):73-82. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources