AUBURN – A Lewiston woman charged with attempted murder after she allegedly attacked her mother with a hatchet was committed to the state mental hospital Thursday.

Nancy Jean, 54, was absent during a hearing at Androscoggin County Superior Court to determine whether she was competent to stand trial. A judge concluded she wasn’t.

Justice Thomas Delahanty II ordered Jean confined at Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta for up to a year. He also ordered that her competency status be updated every 30 days over the next couple of months.

A psychologist testified Thursday that Jean suffers from major depression with aspects of paranoia and schizophrenia. Staff at the state hospital arrived at a similar diagnosis. She had been a resident at the hospital since Aug. 2, but was discharged on Dec. 12, when she returned to the Androscoggin County Jail.

Jean has refused to take medication for her mental condition, said Peter Donnelly, a South Portland psychologist who works as a consultant for the state conducting interviews with defendants. He said he tried to meet with her in November, but she declined.

A sergeant at the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department said he tried to escort Jean into court Thursday from her jail cell, but she wouldn’t leave her bed and began yelling.

Delahanty asked whether it would have been possible to get her into court without carrying her. Sgt. Martin Fournier said, “Absolutely not.”

Jean’s attorney, Scott Quigley, said it would be in her best interest to hold the hearing in her absence, under the circumstances.

Donnelly said Jean’s history of mental illness dates back several decades. A college graduate, she worked at a library in West Palm Beach, Fla., for a couple of years. In the late 1970s, she suffered a mental breakdown and was awarded social security income, he said.

In 1985, she with charged with assault after allegedly hitting her mother, Rita Jean, with a footstool while she slept, he said.

Rita Jean told doctors her daughter responds well to anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs, but a psychiatrist at Riverview said the younger Jean has refused to take any medication, Donnelly said.

Nancy Jean made statements to some hospital staff suggesting she believed they were conspiring against her, Donnelly said.

“Her thinking is substantially impaired,” he said.

Delahanty agreed, saying there’s no question she isn’t competent to stand trial now. He called for periodic checks on her mental status.

Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Worden said the state hopes that Jean will relent and take medication enabling her to stand trial.

If, after a year, she remains legally incompetent, a judge could commit her to a psychiatric hospital.

Jean was arrested in August and charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault after she allegedly hit her mother in the head with a hatchet following an argument.

Rita Jean, 72, drove herself to the hospital with a head wound that took six stitches to close. Police found Nancy Jean at her mother’s house, where she lived, eating a hot fudge sundae. She later admitted to the attack, police said.

Rita Jean said she was sitting in her kitchen when her daughter came in with the hatchet and struck the blow. She fended off a second swing and wrested the hatchet from her daughter before leaving the house.