Schizophrenia and Matricide: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Though a modest number of studies dating back several decades have addressed a possible relationship between schizophrenia and matricide, or mother-killing, this literature to date remains largely unintegrated and findings have yet to be aggregated in any meaningful way. To address this, a qualitative review of studies related to both schizophrenia and matricide was conducted. Sixty-one publications were identified, consisting of case reports, descriptive studies, and comparison studies. Results indicated variable rates across studies of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders among samples of matricidal offenders, though these rates appeared to be elevated in comparison to base rates of schizophrenia in the general population. Additionally, matricidal offenders with and without schizophrenia were in many cases characterized by negative family dynamics, pathological relationships with their mothers, and excessive offense violence. Though only limited generalizations can be made from qualitative synthesis of the literature in its current state, future investigations could lead to the establishment of a schizophrenia—matricide relationship which could have important implications in research, treatment, and criminal investigative areas of forensic psychology.