The prevalence of physical illness in defendants referred for psychiatric observation

The rationale of doing thorough medical screening of all psychiatric patients is clear, because there is a relationship between medical illness and mental illness. It remains unresolved which screening tests should be performed routinely in general psychiatric patients even though the prevalence of medical illness is relatively high. Even less is known about the prevalence of medical illnesses in criminal defendants referred for observation, most of whom do not have a serious psychiatric disorder. Special investigations may be necessary in the diagnosis of these medical conditions. Within the context of psychiatry as a whole, the population referred for forensic observation may be subject to more stringent investigation as a legal requirement. However there is little information available on this group regarding the prevalence of medical illnesses and the impact that these have on the psycho-legal assessment. This study will therefore seek to assess the current practice of routine investigations in assessing criminal defendants that have been referred to the forensic observation unit in order to assess whether these findings contribute significantly to the psycho-legal assessment, and to determine the prevalence of medical illness in this population. It is hoped that it will be possible to decide whether there is utility to do routine tests, essentially by coercion, in this group.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Young, Merryn

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kaliski, Sean

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10749

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/10749