November 2017: The EU-VIORMED Project starts!

The Kick-off meeting of the EU-VIORMED (EUropean study on VIOlence Risk and MEntal Disorders) Project was held in Brescia (Centro Paolo VI, Brescia, Italy) on November 2017, 13^th to 15^th.

The Project involves several University and Clinical Centers across Europe, coordinated by the Hospital of Brescia, Italy (San Giovanni di Dio – Fatebenefratelli).

All partners involved in the Project attended the meeting, led by Giovanni De Girolamo: Ambra Macis, Clarissa Ferrari, Annemarie Unger, Thomas Stompe, Joahnnes Wancata, Andreas Reisseger, Vasilija Rolfes, Inga Markewicz, Pawel Gosek, Marta Ozimkowicz, Viola Bulgari, Marco Picchioni, Hans-Joachim Salize, Barbara Horten, Cesare Cavalera, Paul Nolan, Chiara Barattieri di San Pietro, Cristina Crocamo, and Giuseppe Carrà.

All work packages of the project in terms of project management and evaluation, dissemination activities, definition and evaluation of the clinical study, methods to conduct the mapping survey, and data analysis were described and discussed.

In particular, a thorough and comprehensive discussion between partners was made for management of the following key points of the Project:

– The definition of the first-year work plan.

– The description of the case-control study, including methods to define primary diagnosis and violent behaviours.

– Definition of inclusion criteria of study participants.

– The definition of psychometric scales to test study participants and methods to test the validity of risk assessment tools.

– Training of researchers involved in the recruitment and assessment of study participants.

– Potential reimbursement for study participation.

– Dataset and variables management.

– Methods to compare and identify current forensic policies and practices across Europe.

In addition, the number and characteristics of centres across Europe involved in the recruitment of study participants were defined:

• In Italy, cases will be selected from one forensic unit (Castiglione delle Stiviere) and controls from the Hospital San Giovanni di Dio – Fatebenefratelli (Brescia).
• In Austria, two centres in Wien (one forensic unit and one university hospital), will be involved.
• In Germany three different centres in Mannheim will be involved.
• In Poland at least two centres will be used to recruit cases, whereas controls will be selected from the IPIN – Instytut Psychiatrii i Neurologii (Warsaw).
• Finally, in United Kingdom, 5 or 6 forensic sites will be involved for selection of cases, whereas controls will be recruited at the Maudsley Hospital (London).