Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T13:25:18.565Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prevalence of mental disorder and related treatments in a local jail: a 20-month consecutive case study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2011

Giuseppe Carrà ,
Caterina Giacobone ,
Florinda Pozzi ,
Pasquale Alecci  and
Francesco Barale
Giuseppe Carrà*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Sanitarie Applicate e Psicocomportamentali, Sezione di Psichiatria, Università di Pavia, Pavia
Caterina Giacobone
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Sanitarie Applicate e Psicocomportamentali, Sezione di Psichiatria, Università di Pavia, Pavia
Florinda Pozzi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Sanitarie Applicate e Psicocomportamentali, Sezione di Psichiatria, Università di Pavia, Pavia
Pasquale Alecci
Affiliation:
Direttore Sanitario, Casa Circondariale di Pavia, Istituto di Medicina Legate, Università di Pavia, Pavia
Francesco Barale
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Sanitarie Applicate e Psicocomportamentali, Sezione di Psichiatria, Università di Pavia, Pavia
*
Address for correspondence: Dr. G. Carrà, Dipartimento di Scienze Sanitarie Applicate e Psicocomportamentali, Sezione di Psichiatria, Università di Pavia, Via Bassi 21, 27100 Pavia. Fax- +39-0382-526.723 E-mail: giuseppe.carra@unipv.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Aims – To define the prevalence of mental disorder within an Italian local jail and to describe main psychiatric treatments provided. Methods – Cross-sectional study of consecutive male prisoners referred, over a twenty-month period, for a clinical psychiatric assessment, among population (N=990) of Casa circondariale “Torre del Gallo”, Pavia (I); clinical DSM-IV diagnostic assessment and retrospective analysis of provided psychiatric treatments (i.e. psychiatric visits and pharmacological prescriptions). Results – 191 men (19.3%) had one or more current mental disorders (excluding substance misuse), including 13 (1.3%) psychosis; 53 (5.4%) mood disorder; 24 (2.4%) anxiety disorder; 26 (2.6%) adjustment disorder; 40 (4.1%) personality disorder; 32 (3.2%) personality disorder plus mood disorder; 3 (0.3%) mental retardation. Substance- (N=89, 47%) and HIV-related (N=19, 10%) disorders comorbidity is recognised. Psychiatric visits are mainly provided to psychosis and personality disorder plus mood disorder subgroups. Off-label antipsychotics prescriptions are frequent. Conclusions – The prevalence of mental disorder in this population is higher than US and EU averages, and for particular diagnostic subgroups it could be underestimated. Psychiatric management in prison should be reorganized according to national and European health guidelines.

Keywords

mental disordersprevalenceprisonsprisonersmalepsychiatry
Type
Original Papers
Information
Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 47 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAFIA

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). American Psychiatric Association: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Psychiatric Services in Jails and Prisons, 2nd ed. American Psychiatric Association: Washington DC.Google Scholar
Badger, D., Vaughan, P., Woodward, M. & Williams, P. (1999). Planning to meet the needs of offenders with mental disorders in the United Kingdom. Psychiatric Services 50, 1624–1627.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banerjee, S., O'Neill-Byrne, K., Exworthy, T. & Parrott, J. (1995). The Belmarsh Scheme. A prospective study of the transfer of mentally disordered remand prisoners from prison to psychiatric units. British Journal of Psychiatry 166, 802–805.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birmingham, L., Mason, D. & Grubin, D. (1996). Prevalence of mental disorders in remand prisoners: consecutive case study. British Medical Journal 313, 1521–1524.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blaauw, E., Roesch, R. & Kerkhof, A. (2000). Mental disorders in European prison systems. Arrangements for mentally disordered prisoners in the prison systems of 13 European countries. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 23, 649–663.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brinded, P.M., Simpson, A.I., Laidlaw, T.W., Fairley, N. & Malcolm, F. (2001). Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in New Zealand prisons: a national study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 35, 166–173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brink, J.H., Doherty, D. & Boer, A. (2001). Mental disorder in federal offenders: A Canadian prevalence study. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 24, 339–356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brooke, D., Taylor, C, Gunn, J. & Maden, A. (1996). Point prevalence of mental disorders in unconvicted male prisoners in England and Wales. British Medical Journal 313, 1524–1527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
CDC. (1993). 1993 Revised classification system for HIV infection and expanded surveillance case definition for AIDS among adolescents and adults. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Recomm Rep. 41(RR-17), 1–19.Google Scholar
CED della Corte Suprema di Cassazione (2003). Legislazione Medicina Penitenziaria (online). Ministero della Giustizia: Roma. Retrieved April 21, 2003, from http://www.giustizia.it/cassazione/leggi/Med_pen.htmLegislazioneGoogle Scholar
Clerici, M., Marasco, M., D'Urso, N. & Scarone, S. (2002). Assistenza psichiatrica in carcere. Riflessioni dall'esperienza nella casa di reclusione di “Milano Opera”. In Linee Guida per la Gestione dell'Assistenza Psichiatrica nelle Carceri (ed. Clerici, M., Mencacci, C.e, S. Scarone), pp.65–74. Masson: Milano.Google Scholar
Coid, J., Petruckevitch, A., Bebbington, P., Brugha, T., Bhugra, D., Jenkins, R., Farrel, M., Lewis, G. & Singleton, N. (2002). Ethnic differences in prisoners. I: Criminality and psychiatric morbidity. British Journal of Psychiatry' 181, 473–480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dipartimento dell'Amministrazione penitenziaria (2002). Ufficio per lo sviluppo e la gestione del sistema informativo automatizzato, sezione statistica. Amministrazione Penitenziaria – Statistiche sull'Esecuzione negli Istituti Penitenziari. Retrieved July 4, 2003, from http://www.giustizia.it/statistiche/statistiche_ dap/organigramma.htmGoogle Scholar
Ditton, P.M. (1999). Mental Health and Treatment of Inmates and Probationers. US. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Draine, J. & Solomon, P. (1999). Describing and evaluating jail diversion services for persons with serious mental illness. Psychiatric Services 50, 56–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, C. & Oyebode, D. (2000) From homicide inquiries to high secure hospital inquiries: a decade of social and political restrictive pressure on forensic psychiatry. Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale 9, 234–240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fazel, S. & Danesh, J. (2002). Serious mental disorder in 23000 prisoners: a systematic review of 62 surveys. Lancet, 359, 545–550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fioritti, A. & Melega, V. (2000). Italian forensic psychiatry: a story to be written. Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale 9, 219–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, W.H., Packer, I.K., Simon, L.J. & Smith, D. (2000). Community mental health services and the prevalence of severe mental illness in local jails: are they related? Administration and Policy in Mental Health 27, 371–382.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilligan, J. (2001). The last mental hospital. Psychiatric Quarterly 72,45–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodwin, S. (1997). Comparative Mental Health Policy. Sage: London.Google Scholar
Gunn, J. (2000). Future directions for treatment in forensic psychiatry. British Journal of Psychiatry 176, 332–338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodgins, S. (2001). The major mental disorders and crime: stop debating and start treating and preventing. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 24, 427–446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jenkins, R., Lewis, G., Bebbington, P., Brugha, T., Farrell, M., Gill, B. & Meltzer, H. (1997). The National Psychiatric Morbidity surveys of Great Britain-initial findings from the household survey. Psychological Medicine 27, 775–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessler, R.C., McGonagle, K.A., Zhao, S., Nelson, C.B., Hughes, M., Eshleman, S., Wittchen, H.U. & Kendler, K.S. (1994). Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSMTII-R psychiatric disorders in the United States: results from the National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry 51, 8–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Konrad, N. (2002). Prisons as new asylums. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 15,583–587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, H.R. & Weinberger, L.E. (1998). Persons with severe mental illness in jails and prisons: a review. Psychiatric Services 49, 483–492.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lamb, H.R. & Weinberger, L.E. (2001). Persons with severe mental illness in jails and prisons: a review. New Directions for Mental Health Services 90, 29–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, H.R., Schock, R., Chen, P.W. & Gross, B. (1984). Psychiatric needs in local jails: emergency issues. American Journal of Psychiatry 141, 774–777.Google ScholarPubMed
Lindqvist, P. & Skipworth, J (2000). Evidence-based rehabilitation in forensic psychiatry. British Journal of Psychiatry 170, 320–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maden, A., Rutter, S., McClintock, T., Friendship, C. & Gunn, J. (1999). Outcome of admission to a medium secure psychiatric unit. British Journal of Psychiatry 175, 313–316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mullen, P.E. (2000). Forensic mental health. British Journal of Psychiatry 176,307–311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, K., Akinkunmi, A., Lock, M. & Brown, R. (1997). The Bentham Unit: a pilot remand and assessment service for male mentally disordered remand prisoners. I: Clinical activity in the first year, and related ethical, practical and funding issues. British Journal of Psychiatry 170, 456–461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nurco, D.N., Hanlon, T.E., Bateman, R.W. & Kinlock, T.W. (1995). Drug abuse treatment in the context of correctional surveillance. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 12, 19–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Penrose, L.S. (1939). Mental disease and crime: outline of a comparative study of European statistics. British Journal of Medical Psychology 18, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peternely-Taylor, C.A. & Johnson, R.L. (1995). Serving time: psychiatric mental health nursing in corrections. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services 33, 12–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, T.A., Holt, J.C. & Fondacaro, K.M. (1997). The prevalence of mental illness among inmates in a rural state. Law and Human Behaviour 21, 427–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Priebe, S. & Turner, T. (2003). Reinstitutionalisation in mental health care. British Medical Journal 326, 175–176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roskes, E. & Feldman, R. (1999). A collaborative community-based treatment program for offenders with mental illness. Psychiatric Services 50, 1614–1619.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singleton, N., Meltzer, H., Gatward, R., Coid, J. & Deasy, D. (1998). Psychiatric Morbidity Among Prisoners in England and Wales. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Stata Corporation (2001). Stata Statistical Software: Release 7.0. Stata Corporation: College Station, TX.Google Scholar
Tardiff, K. (2000). Epidemiology of violence and mental illness. Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale 9, 227–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Traverso, G.B., Ciappi, S. & Ferracuti, S.(2000). The treatment of the criminally insane in Italy. An overview. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 23, 493–508.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed