Attachment disorders, specifically Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED) are disorders associated with neglect and abuse in which people have significant difficulties relating to others. This study aims to explore Attachment Disorder symptoms and diagnoses in young offenders and factors that may be associated with them such as mental health problems. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
This article examines the concept of moral responsibility in psychopathy. In doing so it shows how philosophical ideas can be used to help approach a complex issue in psychiatry. Building on a fictitious case, we explore two arguments: the exempting view, which proposes that psychopaths lack any ability to function as moral agents; and the mitigating view, which concedes that there are impairments in moral understanding in psychopathy, but takes these to be insufficient to be completely exempting, instead concluding that such individuals are at least partially morally responsible. Typically, clinicians (and the courts) are more comfortable with a mitigating view, whereas philosophers tend to extol an exempting view. Through discussion of the case, we illustrate the value that philosophy brings to clinical psychiatry and the ways in which psychiatry can enrich philosophical debate. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
The aims were to (1) estimate the prevalence of alcohol and drug use disorders in prisoners on reception to prison, and (2) estimate and test sources of between study heterogeneity across 10 countries. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
Psychological Assessment29.6 (Jun 2017): 692-700.
How likely are multiple forensic evaluators to agree on defendants’ diagnoses in routine forensic mental health evaluations? A total of 720 evaluation reports were examined from 240 cases in which 3 evaluators, working independently, provided diagnoses for the same defendant. Results revealed perfect agreement across 6 independent diagnostic categories in 18.3% of cases. Agreement for individual diagnostic categories was higher, with all 3 evaluators agreeing on the separate presence of psychotic, mood, or substance disorders in more than 64.7% of cases and agreeing on the presence of cognitive or developmental disorders in more than 89.7% of cases. However, evaluators agreed about the combination of psychotic and substance-related diagnoses in only 46.5% of cases. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Translational Issues in Psychological Science; Washingon3.2 (Jun 2017): 143-152.
Recently, the National Research Council, Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community (2009) and President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST; 2016) identified significant concerns about unreliability and bias in the forensic sciences. Two broad categories of problems also appear applicable to forensic psychology: (1) unknown or insufficient field reliability of forensic procedures, and (2) experts’ lack of independence from those requesting their services. We overview and integrate research documenting sources of disagreement and bias in forensic psychology evaluations, including limited training and certification for forensic evaluators, unstandardized methods, individual evaluator differences, and adversarial allegiance. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Coercive measures like mechanical restraint (MR) are widely used in psychiatry but may collide with bioethical autonomy principles, damage those involved, and harm patient–staff relations. Reductions in usage are desirable and addressing illegitimate MR would be an obvious starting point. As one important reason for instigating MR is dangerous patient behavior this attracts special attention. In this complaints audit the role of threats, violence, and contextual characteristics was examined in decisions concerning MR completed by the Danish Psychiatric Patient Complaint Board system from 2007 to 2014. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details for full text.
In England and Wales, secure and forensic psychiatric institutions provide a high-cost, low-volume service that imposes significant restrictions upon detainees. Patients may be detained under the Mental Health Act in such settings for several years or even life, as they are deemed to present a significant risk to themselves or the public. Patients under s37/41 require the Home Office to approve any increase in their freedom. Best practice requires reoffending risk to be assessed before a patient is discharged. Evaluation of risk is an inexact actuarial science operating in a political arena, and research has indicated risk assessment tools have little positive predictive validity. There is concern amongst the wider psychiatric and judicial communities about the ethics of current practice. We examine these issues and consider means of improving risk assessment through red-teaming, increased collaboration between clinician and patient and a paradigm shift towards greater emphasis on patient self-agency. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details for full text.
Several English prisons contain democratic therapeutic communities (TCs) for personality disordered offenders, and addiction TCs for serious substance misusers. This article describes how these are organised and comments on how they are specifically tailored and accredited for use in custodial settings. It also describes ‘psychologically informed planned environments’ (PIPEs), offender pathways for those with personality disorders and psychopathy which provide additional support for psychological treatment. It ends by explaining how ‘enabling environments’ are assessed, since these are now becoming widely adopted in prisons to reverse toxic environments – which affect staff, the prison and the outside world as well as the individual prisoner – and to counter negative learning found in custodial institutions. To read the full article, log in using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details.
The Thames Valley Liaison and Diversion service has teams in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and it aims to identify vulnerabilities in people going through the criminal justice system, and to do so early on. It also assesses people and provides referral and support to help them towards the right treatment, helping to improve their health and reduce social care needs and offending rates.
The service began in 1991, and it has already been recognised as a ‘pathfinder’ service for the development of a nationwide liaison and diversion model.
Although the Sexual Violence Risk-20 (SVR-20) is widely used, its psychometric properties have only been investigated in a limited number of studies. This study explored the factor structure of the SVR-20 and examined its psychometric properties. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
This research examined the frequency of and characteristics associated with three forms of violence among persons with mental illness—violence directed at others, self-directed violence, and violence directed at them by others. Login at top right hand side of page using your SSSFT NHS Athens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Practice Innovations2.1 (Mar 2017): 2-12.
Criminal responsibility refers to the degree to which an individual is accountable for an illegal act that he or she committed given idiographic factors such as age, cognitive abilities, and psychological functioning (Packer, 2009). Thus, perception of criminal responsibility has the potential to greatly impact forensically involved individuals, and most often forensically involved individuals living with severe and persistent mental illness and/or cognitive limitations. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Open access. To evaluate differences between male patients in secure psychiatric settings in the UK based on whether they are detained under civil or forensic sections of the Mental Health Act 1983. A cohort of patients discharged from a secure psychiatric hospital were evaluated for length of stay and frequency of risk-related incidents.
In January, new guidance was drawn up for police and healthcare professionals, outlining for the first time how and when police officers should be involved in physically restraining people in healthcare settings in England and Wales. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you requesting.
To detect any differences in the antipsychotic prescribing practices of consultant forensic psychiatrists working in different levels of secure care with patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, and to identify potential reasons for any differences. Prescribing data were collected from four secure hospitals within one National Health Service trust. A questionnaire was sent to consultant forensic psychiatrists working at those hospitals as well as those working in the trust's community forensic services. Open access.
ABSTRACT FROM: Jeandarme I, Pouls C, De Laender J, et al. Field validity of the HCR-20 in forensic medium security units in Flanders. Psychology, Crime & Law 2017;23:305–22. To read the full review, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.