Research into the mental health of prisoners, digested

By Christian Jarrett Around the world, more people than ever are locked up in prisons – estimated to be in excess of 11 million people, up by almost 20 per cent since the turn of the millennium (pdf). According to a recent House of Commons Briefing Paper the rate of increase is even higher than this in the UK where prison populations are at a record high. Many of these incarcerated individuals have intensifying mental health needs – for instance, the same briefing paper reports that UK rates of self-harm in prisoners were 25 per cent higher in 2015 than in 2014. Ahead of next week’s meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Psychology on the topic of Mental Health in the Criminal Justice System, here we provide a digest of research into the mental health of prisoners. Prisoners are at much higher risk of mental health problems than the general population According to a systematic review published in 2012, involving data from over 30,000 prisoners worldwide from 24 different countries, around 12 per cent of prisoners have a diagnosis of depression and nearly 4 per cent have a diagnosis of psychosis (compared with approximately 4 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively, in the general population). Other mental health conditions are also more common among prison populations than the general public, including substance misuse and personality disorders. The statistics show that women prisoners seem to be at especially high risk of mental health problems. Prisone...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Feature Forensic Mental health Source Type: blogs