Mental health consultations in a prison population: a descriptive study

Kjelsberg, Ellen; Hartvig, Paal; Bowitz, Harald; Kuisma, Irene; Nørbech, Peder Chr Bryhn; Rustad, Aase-Bente; Seem, Marthe; Vik, Tom-Gunnar

doi:10.1186/1471-244x-6-27

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This indicates their tendency to develop mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder in the near future. This finding is also supported by the study of Johan, Bjorngard, Rustad, and Kjelshberg,[26] who found that prisoners are characterized by elevated mental and physical health related morbidity. Kane[11] reported in his study that more than 8 in 10 prisoners have chronic physical mental or substance abuse conditions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Adjustment and mental health problem in prisoners

Sinha¹

2010

Ind Psychiatry J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background:“Crime” is increasing day by day in our society not only in India but also all over the world. In turn, the number of prisoners is also increasing at the same rate. They remain imprisoned for a long duration or in some cases for the whole life. Living in a prison for long time becomes difficult for all inmates. So they often face adjustment and mental health problems. Recent findings suggest that mental illness rate in prison is three times higher than in the general population.Objective:The aim of the present study was to investigate the adjustment and the mental health problem and its relation in the prisoners.Materials and Methods:In the present study, 37 male prisoners of district jail of Dhanbad District of Jharkhand were selected on purposive sampling basis. Each prisoner was given specially designed Performa – Personal Data Sheet, General Health Questionnaire-12 and Bell Adjustment Inventory. Appropriate statistical tools were used to analyze the data.Results:The results obtained showed poor adjustment in social and emotional areas on the adjustment scale. The study also revealed a significant association between adjustment and mental health problem in the prisoners.Conclusion:The prisoners were found to have poor social and emotional adjustment which has strong association with their mental health.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Adjustment and mental health problem in prisoners

Sinha¹

2010

Ind Psychiatry J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This finding is comparable with other studies that have reported a high rate of psychiatric disorders among inmates (Agbahowe et al, 1998;Otakpo & Asikhia, 2000;Teplin et al, 2002;Abram, Teplin, McClelland, & Dulcan, 2003;Kjelsberg, Hartvig, Bowitz, Kuisma, Norbech, Rustad, Seem, & Vik, 2006;Trestman, Ford, Zhang, & Wiesbrock, 2007). This prevalence was however higher than the previously reported rate of 34% by Agbahowe et al (1998) in a study among inmates in Benin, Nigeria but lower than the rate (78.7%) obtained by Otakpo and Asikhia (2000).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among inmates of a borstal institution in Nigeria

Issa

Yussuf

Ajiboye

et al. 2009

International Journal of Prisoner Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Studies have reported increased psychiatric morbidity among young detainees, with as many as three-quarters reported to have one or more psychiatric disorders. Despite this, however, there is a dearth of published work among young inmates of prisons, remand homes or borstal institutions in Nigeria. The aim of this study was to assess possible psychiatric morbidity among young inmates of a borstal institution in Nigeria and to determine the factors that may be associated with this morbidity. Fifty-three inmates of one of the two existing borstal institution in Nigeria were assessed for psychiatric morbidity using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The GHQ-12 scores were compared with the socio-demographic factors of the respondents. Twenty-eight (52.8%) of the inmates were over 18 years old, 35.8% were in the middle position within the family, 62.3% were of Christian faith, and 64.2% had their parents still living together. Seventeen (32.1%) of the inmates were from Hausa ethnic extraction, 58.5% stayed for more than 6 months at the borstal institution, and 81.1% were brought to the institution by their parents. The mean age of the inmates was 17.3 years (range, 14-23 years) and 26 (49.1%) of them were GHQ-positive. There was no statistically significant difference between the mean age of GHQ-positive and GHQ-negative inmates (F=1.73, p=0.19), and none of the socio-demographic variables were significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity (i.e. GHQ-12 positivity). The study observed a high prevalence of undetected psychiatric morbidity among inmates at the borstal institution. Efforts should be intensified by the authority responsible for managing the Nigerian prison services (including the borstal institutions) to improve mental health services.

show abstract

“…The developments in effective therapies for Personality Disorders (Bernstein, Arntz, & Vos, 2007;Farrell, Shaw, & Webber, 2009;Nadort et al, 2009;van Asselt et al, 2008) suggest that psychotherapeutic interventions reducing factors underlying antisocial behavior should be a key area of investment when dealing with personality-disordered inmates (Gilbert & Daffern, 2011;Kjelsberg et al, 2006). Similarly to what is done in the case of substance dependence/abuse, differential treatment for subjects with severe personality pathology should be provided to ensure adequate treatment and rehabilitation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%