BMJ  2007;334:267-268 (10 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39105.392060.BE

Editorials

Improving the mental health of offenders in primary care

Strategies to enhance social inclusion are as important as medical interventions

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

According to a recent MORI poll, doctors are viewed by the public as the most trusted professionals; more than 90% of the public trust doctors to be truthful and 80% view them as helpful.¹ However, a qualitative study reported in this week's BMJ by Howerton and colleagues found that most offenders did not trust their general practitioners enough to ask them for help, despite experiencing high levels of distress, self harming behaviour, and emotional problems.²

Childhood abuse and early traumatic life events are associated with increased rates of neurotic disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, substance misuse, self harm, and antisocial personality disorder in adulthood.^{3 4} Survivors of abuse have problems in trusting others (particularly figures in authority), and both victims and perpetrators of crime commonly have feelings of low self esteem, shame, and helplessness.^{5 6} Male prisoners have high rates of lifetime traumatic experiences,^{2 3 4} and not surprisingly these "offender-victims" experience high levels . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Division of Mental Health, St George's University of London, London SW17 0RE

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Related Article

Understanding help seeking behaviour among male offenders: qualitative interview study

Amanda Howerton, Richard Byng, John Campbell, David Hess, Christabel Owens, and Peter Aitken
BMJ 2007 334: 303. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Specialist criticises General Practice shock!

Tom G Heyes
bmj.com, 15 Feb 2007 [Full text]