Rate of psychiatric morbidity in a metropolitan county jail population
- 1 December 1976
- journal article
- Published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing in American Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 133 (12) , 1439-1444
- https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.133.12.1439
Abstract
The author describes social-psychiatric characteristics of 122 jail inmates examined while awaiting trail, 80% of them on felony charges. The estimated overall rate of psychiatric illness was 4.6%. The patient sample was significantly older and contained significantly more minority group men than the jail population as a whole. Thirty-six percent of the patients diagnosed as schizophrenic were arrested on misdemeanor charges. Drug dependency was diagnosed in 51% of the men but in only 15% of the women. Psychosis was diagnosed more frequently and alcoholism, anxiety neurosis, and antisocial personality less frequently than in studies of prison populations using similar diagnostic criteria.Keywords
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