Journal of Family Violecne, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1989 Family Violence Reported in a Psychiatric Emergency Room Edward W. Gondolf, l Edward P. Mulvey, 1 and Charles W. Lidz ~ The prevalence o f family violence reported in psychiatric emergency rooms is relatively undocumented, despite the clinical and legal concern for dan- gerousness. This study assesses the prevalence of aggression incidents reported to clinicians and physicians during evaluation interviews (n = 389). Two- thirds of the total number of subjects reported being involved in an "'aggres- sion" incident sometime in their past. Only 8% reported being the victim of such incidents. About one-half of the cases involved physical assaults; nearly one-half of these assaults had family members as victims. One third of the total cases:had been assaultive within 3 months," one sixth had been assaultive within 2 weeks of visiting the hospital. Clinicians and researchers are urged to consider more systematically family violence in psychiatric settings. KEY WORDS: family violence; psychiatric treatment; mental health; interpersonal violence. INTRODUCTION In recent years, family violence researchers have investigated the inci- dence of family violence among police calls, hospital visits, and social work service. The research has revealed that a disproprotionatety high percentage of cases involve family violence (Borkowski et al., 1983; Gondolf and McFer- ron, 1989; Kurz, 1987; Lloyd et al., 1983; Shields et al., 1988; Stark et al., 1979). Consequently, measures have been proposed and increasingly im- plemented to more effectively address the previously undetected or neglected ~Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213. 249 0855-7482/89/0900-0249506.00/0 9 1989PlenumPublishing Corporation