Abstract

Women are much less likely to be forensic patients than men. They are most commonly hospitalized for a diagnosis within the psychotic disorder spectrum. However, studies show that female forensic patients can be divided into specific subgroups with different characteristics, depending on their diagnoses. The main aim of this study was, therefore, to reveal the differences between the subgroups of female forensic patients. Our sample consisted of 31 female forensic inpatients of the Department of Forensic Psychiatry “Dr. Vlado Jukić”, who were hospitalized in the period from 2009 to 2023. We divided them into two subgroups: a subgroup of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or related disorders, and a subgroup of patients diagnosed with other mental disorders. The individual characteristics of the two subgroups were compared using a chi-square test and a t-test. The study showed that differences exist between these two subgroups of patients. The first main difference is in the level of education. Patients who were not diagnosed with schizophrenia or related disorder were less educated. The other difference involved a more frequent occurrence of comorbidity in the patients who were not diagnosed with schizophrenia or related disorder. These differences should be taken into account in order to achieve the best possible treatment outcome and also to prevent the aggravation of the illness, consequently preventing the commission of the offence itself.