A Comparison of Psychiatric Admissions from Prison and Other Sources

¹ Consultant Psychiatrist, Long Grove Hospital, Epsom, and Kingston Hospital, Kingston-upon-Thames

Differences between patients admitted to hospital from prisons and from other sources include both medical and social factors. Schizophrenia accounted for many more of the prison group; Manic-depression and Neurotic Reactions less. The prison group was younger which is partly accounted for by the diagnostic differences. The amount of previous psychiatric illness was comparable and no difference in the interval since a previous admission was noticeable. The prison group stayed longer in hospital although more of them took their own discharge; less were able to be discharged within 12 months and After-Care for them proved more difficult. They appeared to have travelled more extensively, had much more often been admitted to other psychiatric hospitals, and more frequently came from outside the catchment area; and there was a remarkable increase in the numbers who were homeless, particularly among the immigrants. In addition to being more mobile the prison group more often came from a broken home, more of them were divorced or separated and they were less skilled men. They had a criminal background more frequently and, from a close study of some individual histories, many men had spent other periods of illness in prison.