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Psychiatric morbidity in the male sentenced Irish prisons population

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Dearbhla Duffy ,
Sally Linehan  and
Harry G Kennedy
Dearbhla Duffy
Affiliation:
National Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14, Ireland
Sally Linehan
Affiliation:
National Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14, Ireland
Harry G Kennedy
Affiliation:
National Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14, Ireland
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Abstract

Background: This is the first epidemiologically representative cross-sectional study of psychiatric morbidity using research diagnostic instruments in sentenced prisoners in Ireland.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and psychiatric service requirements.

Method: We interviewed 340 men serving a fixed sentence (14.6% of total) and 98 men serving a life sentence (82% of total). Prisoners were drawn from 15 different prisons using a random stratified sampling method. Mental illness and substance misuse was measured using the SADS-L, SODQ and a structured interview to generate ICD-10-DCR diagnoses.

Results: We found a high prevalence of mental illness. Our six month prevalence for psychosis (2.7%) was similar to an international meta-analysis. We found a significantly higher prevalence of psychosis in life sentenced prisoners (6.1%) compared to fixed sentenced prisoners (1.8%). Drugs and alcohol problems were very prevalent.

Conclusions: Using the six month prevalence figures found for psychosis, we estimate that there are approximately 79 sentenced male prisoners with a severe mental illness who would require treatment in hospital additional to current provision. We discuss the relationship between drug availability and the prevalence of severe mental illnesses in prisons.

Keywords

Psychiatric morbiditymale sentencedIrish prison population.
Type
Original Papers
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 2006 , pp. 54 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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