Am J Psychiatry 1991; 148:236-239
Copyright © 1991 by American Psychiatric Association
Hidden severe psychiatric morbidity in sentenced prisoners: an Australian study
H Herrman, P McGorry, J Mills and B Singh
Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this survey was to estimate the prevalence of severe
mental disorders in a representative sample of sentenced prisoners. METHOD:
The subjects were selected as a random sample of sentenced prisoners in
Melbourne's three metropolitan prisons. Interviews were conducted with 158
men and 31 women. Clinicians used the Structured Clinical Interview for
DSM-III-R (SCID) to diagnose psychotic, affective, and substance use
disorders. RESULTS: Six prisoners (3%) received current diagnoses of
psychotic disorders, and 23 (12%) were diagnosed as having current mood
disorders, mainly major depression. A lifetime diagnosis of at least one
mental disorder each was made for 82% of the respondents, and in 26% more
than one lifetime disorder was diagnosed. Sixty-nine percent received
lifetime diagnoses of dependence on or abuse of alcohol, other psychoactive
substances, or a combination of these. CONCLUSIONS: These findings do not
indicate a large-scale shift of deinstitutionalized psychotically ill
people from mental hospitals to prisons. They do, however, highlight the
diversion into the corrections system of substance-dependent people and the
apparent pool of prisoners with largely untreated major depression.
