Aggressive behavior during the first 24 hours of psychiatric admission.

Objective: To investigate the association between aggression in the first 24 hours after admission and severity of psychopathology in psychiatric inpatients.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included psychiatric patients admitted to Hospital Universitário de Santa Maria, in Santa Maria, southern Brazil, from August 2012 to January 2013. At their arrival at the hospital, patients were interviewed to fill in the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) form, and any aggressive episodes in the first 24 hours after admission were recorded using the Overt Aggression Scale (OAS).