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Assessing needs for psychiatric treatment in prisoners: 1. Prevalence of disorder

Bebbington, P; Jakobowitz, S; McKenzie, N; Killaspy, H; Iveson, R; Duffield, G; Kerr, M; (2017) Assessing needs for psychiatric treatment in prisoners: 1. Prevalence of disorder. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology , 52 (2) pp. 221-229. 10.1007/s00127-016-1311-7. Green open access

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: High levels of psychiatric morbidity in prisoners have important implications for services. Assessing Needs for Psychiatric Treatment in Prisoners is an evaluation of representative samples of prisoners in a male and a female prison in London. This paper reports on the prevalence of mental disorders. In a companion paper, we describe how this translates into mental health treatment needs and the extent to which they have been met. METHODS: Prisoners were randomly sampled in a sequential procedure based on the Local Inmate Data System. We interviewed roughly equal numbers from the following groups: male remand; male sentenced prisoners (Pentonville prison); and female remand; female sentenced prisoners (Holloway prison). Structured assessments were made of psychosis, common mental disorders, PTSD, personality disorder and substance abuse. RESULTS: We interviewed 197 male and 171 female prisoners. Psychiatric morbidity in male and female, sentenced and remand prisoners far exceeded in prevalence and severity than in equivalent general population surveys. In particular, 12% met criteria for psychosis; 53.8% for depressive disorders; 26.8% for anxiety disorders; 33.1% were dependent on alcohol and 57.1% on illegal drugs; 34.2% had some form of personality disorder; and 69.1% had two disorders or more. Moreover, in the year before imprisonment, 25.3% had used mental health services. CONCLUSIONS: These rates of mental ill-health and their similarity in remand and sentenced prisoners indicate that diversion of people with mental health problems from the prison arm of the criminal justice system remains inadequate, with serious consequences for well-being and recidivism.

Type: Article
Title: Assessing needs for psychiatric treatment in prisoners: 1. Prevalence of disorder
Location: Germany
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1007/s00127-016-1311-7
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-016-1311-7
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Keywords: Epidemiology, Needs for care, Prevalence, Prisoners, Psychiatric disorders, Psychosis, Substance abuse
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > IoN RLW Inst of Neurological Sci
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1530827
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