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. 2018 May 29;18(1):159.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-018-1742-7.

High prevalence rates for multiple psychiatric conditions among inmates at French Guiana's correctional facility: diagnostic and demographic factors associated with violent offending and previous incarceration

Mathieu Nacher  1 , Gulen Ayhan  2 , Romain Arnal  3 , Célia Basurko  2 , Florence Huber  4 , Agathe Pastre  5 , Louis Jehel  6 , Bruno Falissard  7 , Vincent About  5
Affiliations

High prevalence rates for multiple psychiatric conditions among inmates at French Guiana's correctional facility: diagnostic and demographic factors associated with violent offending and previous incarceration

Mathieu Nacher et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: French Guiana has the highest incarceration rate among French territories, it is higher than that of Brazil, Colombia or Venezuela. It is well known that mental health problems are over-represented in correctional facilities. Our objectives were to describe the prevalence of various psychiatric conditions and to study factors associated with violence and repeated offenses among arriving detainees at the sole correctional facility of French Guiana.

Methods: The study was cross-sectional. All consenting new adult prisoners incarcerated between 18/09/2013 and 31/12/2014 at the penitentiary centre of French Guiana were included. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was used to screen for psychiatric diagnoses. In addition sociodemographic data was collected.

Results: Overall 647 men and 60 women were included. The participation rate was 90%.Overall 72% of patients had at least one psychiatric diagnosis (Fig. 2). Twenty percent had three or more diagnoses. Violent index offences were not more frequent among those with a psychiatric diagnosis (crude odds ratio 1.3 (95%CI = 0.9-2), P = 0.11. Multivariate analysis showed that after adjusting for sex and age, psychosis, suicidality and post-traumatic stress disorder were independently associated with violent offences. Generalized anxiety disorder was less likely to be associated with incarceration for violent offences. Having a history of a previous incarceration was significantly associated with a psychiatric condition in general (any diagnosis) OR = 3 (95%CI = 2-4.3), P < 0.0001. Calculations of the population attributable risks showed that in the sample 31.4% of repeat incarcerations were attributable to antisocial personality disorder, 28.3% to substance addiction, 17.3% to alcohol addiction, 8.7% to depression and 7% to psychosis.

Conclusions: The very high prevalence of psychiatric disorders observed in our sample, and the relative lack of psychiatric facilities, suggest that part of the problem of very high incarceration rate may be explained by transinstitutionalization. Improving psychiatric care in prison and coordination with psychiatric care in the community after release is likely to be important.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Ethical committee of Bordeaux (Comité de Protection des Personnes, CPP) (reference number DC 2012/115). The study was also approved by the Ethical committee of INSERM CEEI in 2013 (IRB00003888). Inmates gave informed consent (oral and written) to participate in the study.

Consent for publication

All persons included gave informed consent for publication of aggregated results.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Age of incarcerated persons included in the study at the sole correctional facility of French Guiana
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number of psychiatric diagnoses among inmates incarcerated in the sole correctional facility of French Guiana
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Prevalence and 95% confidence intervals of different psychiatric conditions in Prisoners in French Guiana using the MINI 5.0 screening tool at the time of incarceration
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Principal component analysis of the different psychiatric diagnoses among inmates incarcerated in the sole correctional facility of French Guiana
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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