Commentaries on the letter to the editor Patricide and schizophrenia – A case report

The case report “Patricide and Schizophrenia”1 is very interesting and the topic highly relevant, once violence among psychiatric patients is quite a taboo, surrounded by prejudice, on the one hand, and misinformation on the other hand. In the first place, it is noteworthy that psychiatric patients are more prone to be victim than perpetrator of crime and violence2. Thus, the main reason why people associate mental illness with aggressiveness is, above all, due to stigma and prejudice. Nevertheless, one can not deny that severe psychotic patients, especially without proper treatment, are at a slightly but significantly higher risk of turning violent3. The risk is even higher when there is a comorbid abuse of substances3. Killing the own father is a rare crime, but one that highly concerns psychiatrists. Whereas it is usually linked to a kind of family violence revenge if conducted by adolescents4, it is, if committed by an adult, often a case that involves a psychiatric patient, frequently suffering from schizophrenia5. Thus, this specific kind of homicide is, at least partially, a crime that could be prevented: if psychotic patients receive proper treatment, the symptoms can be controlled and, undoubtedly, a significant number of those crimes could be avoided.