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Compulsory Psychiatric Treatment in the Community

II. a Controlled Study of Patients whom Psychiatrists would Recommend for Compulsory Treatment in the Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Tom Sensky ,
Timothy Hughes  and
Steven Hirsch
Tom Sensky*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School
Timothy Hughes
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School
Steven Hirsch
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School
*
∗Department of Psychiatry, West Middlesex University Hospital, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 6AF
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Abstract

Several English consultant psychiatrists were asked to identify which patients currently under their care they would recommend for treatment with a community treatment order, if such a provision existed. The psychiatrists were asked to match each such ‘nominated’ patient for age, sex and diagnosis with one or two control patients, not considered to require compulsory treatment in the community. From specific data collected, it was found that: the two groups did not differ in their ‘lifetime’ histories of psychiatric admissions, substance misuse, criminal charges or dangerousness; 65–72% of the total sample had a history of serious dangerousness; but in the 12 months before nomination, the ‘nominated’ patients were significantly less likely than the controls to have complied with psychiatric treatment, and more likely to have defaulted from follow-up. The results indicate that a psychiatrist's decision to recommend a patient for treatment with a community treatment order will depend predominantly on specific criteria related to the patient's recent past.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 158 , Issue 6 , June 1991 , pp. 799 - 804
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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