The 801 participants we selected from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study were initially assessed, while hospitalized, via face-to-face interviews (100%) by trained raters (PhD or MSW/MA) using the self-report measures of substance use, the BPRS and the GAF, respectively. At hospitalization, data were collected using a 30-day retrospective index to examine the initial levels of symptomatology, functioning, and the proportions of patients using substances [37–38]. Then, the same symptom, functional and substance use assessments were re-administered 5 times (every 10-weeks) via face-to-face (89%) or telephone (11%) interviews by trained raters, during the 1-year post-hospitalization period [37–38, 40]. The findings of the parent MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study indicated that patients in the follow-up sample were significantly more likely to have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, less likely to have a history of drug or alcohol abuse, less likely to have a legal status of grave disability, and less likely to have a documented history of violence toward family members or others [38]. Within our sample of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum, bipolar, and depressive disorders we found drug/alcohol use at
