Caratteristiche cliniche, sociodemografiche e criticità nella cura del paziente affetto da patologia mentale detenuto in Italia: studio osservazionale di casi consecutivi della durata di sei mesi

Introduction

There are more than 10 million inmates worldwide. Recent studies show that, compared with general population, prisoners have about 2–10-fold higher rate of mental disorders. In order to evaluate severity symptomatology of psychiatric inmates as well as clinical and sociodemographic characteristics, we performed a research on a sample of prisoners secluded in “Casa Circondariale di Monza” referred for a clinical psychiatric assessment.

Materials and methods

Cross-sectional study of consecutive prisoners secluded in “Casa Circondariale di Monza” referred, over a six-month period, for a clinical psychiatric assessment. For whole sample, clinical and sociodemographic characteristics were collected, a clinical diagnosis in according with DSM-IV-TR was formulated and Clinical Global Impressions (CGI), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D), Mania Rating Scale (MRS), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, version 11 (BIS-11) were administered. Moreover, all patients were prospectively followed until the end of the study and main clinical variables were recorded.

Results

In our sample prevalence for a mental disorders was: personality disorders 33.6%; adjustment disorders 26.1%; psychotic disorders 4.2%; mood disorders 10.9%; anxiety disorders 6.7%. Mean total scores obtained at psychometric scales were: GAF 70.5; MRS 3.4; HAM-D 9.1; HAM-A 7.9; BIS-11 68.8; PANSS 42.1; CGI 3.2.

Conclusions

Mainly, prisoners affected by mental disorder showed a moderate symptomatic severity. Psychometric scales have been found useful to identify a subgroup of subjects with an increased risk to make self harm.