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Forensic psychiatry

This section is focused on forensic psychiatry. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, general violence, domestic violence, homicide, sex offences, assessment in forensic settings, and general forensic psychiatry.


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  1. Prevention of violence due to severe mental disorders in psychiatric hospitals may require intrusive, restrictive and coercive therapeutic practices. Research concerning appropriate use of such interventions i...

    Authors: Harry G. Kennedy, Ronan Mullaney, Paul McKenna, John Thompson, David Timmons, Pauline Gill, Owen P. O’Sullivan, Paul Braham, Dearbhla Duffy, Anthony Kearns, Sally Linehan, Damian Mohan, Stephen Monks, Lisa McLoughlin, Paul O’Connell, Conor O’Neill…

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:515

    Content type: Research article

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  2. Some aggressive acts committed by individuals with psychotic spectrum disorders (PSD) are understandable in the context of interpersonal conflict or goal attainment, yet others are unpredictable, arising from ...

    Authors: Anette GM Johansson, Malin Källman, Lennart Högman, Marianne Kristiansson, Håkan Fischer and Sven Bölte

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:470

    Content type: Research article

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  3. Forensic psychiatric patients often suffer from a multitude of severe psychiatric and social problems. Meanwhile multimodal evidence-based interventions are scarce and treatment effectiveness is in need of imp...

    Authors: L. T. A. Swinkels, T. M. van der Pol, A. Popma, J. F. ter Harmsel and J. J. M. Dekker

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:418

    Content type: Study protocol

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  4. Asylum seekers are at elevated risk of self-harm, and the personal and public health costs of self-harm are high; yet the monitoring and reporting of self-harm has been limited and lacking in transparency. Thi...

    Authors: Kyli Hedrick, Gregory Armstrong, Guy Coffey and Rohan Borschmann

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:301

    Content type: Research article

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  5. The risk and recovery paradigms are the dominant frameworks informing forensic mental health services and have been the focus of increasing research interest. Despite this, there are significant gaps in our un...

    Authors: Alexander I. F. Simpson, Irene Boldt, Stephanie Penney, Roland Jones, Sean Kidd, Arash Nakhost and Treena Wilkie

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:230

    Content type: Study protocol

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  6. Prolonged forensic psychiatric hospitalizations have raised ethical, economic, and clinical concerns. Due to the confounded nature of factors affecting length of stay of psychiatric offender patients, prior re...

    Authors: Johannes Kirchebner, Moritz Philipp Günther, Martina Sonnweber, Alice King and Steffen Lau

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:201

    Content type: Research article

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  7. Contextual variables such as staff characteristics, treatment programs, assessment routines and administrative structures are found to influence patient violence rates in psychiatric forensic wards. The possib...

    Authors: Ragnar Urheim, Tom Palmstierna, Knut Rypdal, Rolf Gjestad, Mette Senneseth and Arnstein Mykletun

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:200

    Content type: Research article

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    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Psychiatry 2021 21:44

  8. Interpersonal violence has increased as a health concern, especially in psychiatry practice, over the last decades. Nevertheless, most patients with stable mental disorders do not present an increased risk of ...

    Authors: Dalila Talevi, Alberto Collazzoni, Alessandro Rossi, Paolo Stratta, Monica Mazza, Francesca Pacitti, Manuela Costa, Claudio Crescini and Rodolfo Rossi

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:196

    Content type: Research article

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  9. Many studies have related biochemical characteristics to violence and have reported schizophrenia could elevated the risk of violent behaviour. However, the metabolic characteristics of schizophrenia patients ...

    Authors: Xiacan Chen, Jiajun Xu, Jing Tang, Xinhua Dai, Haolan Huang, Ruochen Cao and Junmei Hu

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:97

    Content type: Research article

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  10. The Auckland Regional Forensic Psychiatry Services (ARFPS) in New Zealand has introduced structured clinical judgment instruments developed in Ireland (DUNDRUM-3 and DUNDRUM-4) to assist staff decision-making ...

    Authors: Julie Wharewera-Mika, Erana Cooper, Nick Wiki, Kiri Prentice, Trudie Field, James Cavney, David Kaire and Brian McKenna

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:61

    Content type: Research article

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  11. Approximately 40–70% of justice-involved youth have untreated mental health problems. There is no current research that directly compares the mental health profiles of youth involved in the justice system to t...

    Authors: Shannon L. Stewart, Elizabeth Thornley, Natalia Lapshina, Patricia Erickson, Evelyn Vingilis, Hayley Hamilton and Nathan Kolla

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2020 20:11

    Content type: Research article

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  12. The link between schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and violence is a core issue for most forensic psychiatric services. However, the drivers of violence in this population remain unclear, and, to date too...

    Authors: Giovanni de Girolamo, Giuseppe Carrà, Heiner Fangerau, Clarissa Ferrari, Pawel Gosek, Janusz Heitzman, Hans Salize, Margaret Walker, Johannes Wancata and Marco Picchioni

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2019 19:410

    Content type: Study protocol

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  13. People with schizophrenia are ten times more likely to commit homicide than a member of the general population. The relationship between symptoms of schizophrenia and acts of violence is unclear. There has als...

    Authors: Ken O’Reilly, Paul O’Connell, Danny O’Sullivan, Aiden Corvin, James Sheerin, Padraic O’Flynn, Gary Donohoe, Hazel McCarthy, Daniela Ambrosh, Muireann O’Donnell, Aisling Ryan and Harry G. Kennedy

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2019 19:408

    Content type: Research article

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  14. Somatization is regarded as psychological or emotional distress in the form of physical symptoms that are otherwise medically unexplained.

    Authors: Narifumi Yokoyama, Ryousuke Shiraki, Takashi Watanabe, Makiko Shiinoki, Michihiro Nin, Taro Shimizu, Norio Yasui-Furukori and Kazutaka Shimoda

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2019 19:394

    Content type: Case report

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  15. Personality Disorder (PD) is an enduring, multi-faceted mental disorder, associated with adverse health effects, difficulties with interpersonal relationships and in some cases increased risk to others. A limi...

    Authors: Zoe Foyston, Celia Taylor and Mark Freestone

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2019 19:280

    Content type: Research article

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  16. Research in high income countries reports higher prevalence of mental disorders among prisoners than in the general population. Lack of published data from low resource settings affects planning and eventual s...

    Authors: Jimmy Ben Forry, Scholastic Ashaba and Godfrey Zari Rukundo

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2019 19:178

    Content type: Research article

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  17. International studies show a consistent finding of women in prisons as having a high prevalence of mental disorder. Most will be treated within the prison however the most severely ill require transfer to a ho...

    Authors: Roland M. Jones, Kiran Patel and Alexander I. F. Simpson

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2019 19:98

    Content type: Research article

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  18. The extent of post-mortem detection of specific psychoactive drugs may differ between countries, and may greatly influence the national death register’s classification of manner and cause of death. The main ob...

    Authors: Ida Kathrine Gravensteen, Øivind Ekeberg, Ingemar Thiblin, Karin Helweg-Larsen, Erlend Hem, Sidsel Rogde and Ingvild Maria Tøllefsen

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2019 19:33

    Content type: Research article

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  19. Evidence is accumulating that Cognitive Remediation Training (CRT) is effective for ameliorating cognitive deficits experienced by patients with schizophrenia and accompanying functional impairment. There has ...

    Authors: Ken O’Reilly, Gary Donohoe, Danny O’Sullivan, Ciaran Coyle, Aiden Corvin, Padraic O’Flynn, Muireann O’Donnell, Toni Galligan, Paul O’Connell and Harry G. Kennedy

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2019 19:27

    Content type: Research article

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  20. We evaluated change in response to multi-modal psychosocial ‘treatment as usual’ programs offered within a forensic hospital.

    Authors: Melanie S. Richter, Ken O’Reilly, Danny O’Sullivan, Padraic O’Flynn, Aiden Corvin, Gary Donohoe, Ciaran Coyle, Mary Davoren, Caroline Higgins, Orla Byrne, Tina Nutley, Andrea Nulty, Kapil Sharma, Paul O’Connell and Harry G. Kennedy

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:289

    Content type: Research article

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  21. Around 25% of prisoners meet diagnostic criteria for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Because ADHD is associated with increased recidivism and other functional and behavioural problems, appropr...

    Authors: Susan Young, Gisli Gudjonsson, Prathiba Chitsabesan, Bill Colley, Emad Farrag, Andrew Forrester, Jack Hollingdale, Keira Kim, Alexandra Lewis, Sarah Maginn, Peter Mason, Sarah Ryan, Jade Smith, Emma Woodhouse and Philip Asherson

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:281

    Content type: Research article

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  22. Many patients residing in forensic psychiatric centers have difficulties regulating their aggression in an adequate manner. Therefore, they are frequently involved in conflicts. Evidenced-based aggression ther...

    Authors: Stéphanie Klein Tuente, Stefan Bogaerts, Sarah van IJzendoorn and Wim Veling

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:251

    Content type: Study protocol

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  23. Many former inmates recidivate, resulting in high costs for societies worldwide. Evidence based treatment practices may not work in prisons, due to detainees’ lacking motivation, impaired well-being, and an un...

    Authors: Gerdien Schenk, Hanne M. Duindam, Hanneke E. Creemers, Machteld Hoeve, Geert Jan J. M. Stams and Jessica J. Asscher

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:218

    Content type: Study protocol

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  24. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is highly prevalent amongst prison inmates and the criminal justice system (CJS) likely bears considerable costs for offenders with ADHD. We aimed to examine the...

    Authors: Susan Young, Rafael A. González, Moshe Fridman, Paul Hodgkins, Keira Kim and Gisli H. Gudjonsson

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:210

    Content type: Research article

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  25. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and head injury (including traumatic brain injury (TBI)) manifest in high levels across prison samples and guidance from the National Institute for Health and Ca...

    Authors: Susan Young, Rafael A. González, Moshe Fridman, Paul Hodgkins, Keira Kim and Gisli H. Gudjonsson

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:209

    Content type: Research article

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  26. 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 correcti...

    Authors: Mathieu Nacher, Gulen Ayhan, Romain Arnal, Célia Basurko, Florence Huber, Agathe Pastre, Louis Jehel, Bruno Falissard and Vincent About

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:159

    Content type: Research article

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  27. Because of the potential gravity of finding a person incompetent, assessment of mental capacity is challenging for clinicians. We aimed to test validity of a new structured professional judgement tool designed...

    Authors: Gearoid Moynihan, Ken O’Reilly, Jane O’Connor and Harry G. Kennedy

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:78

    Content type: Research article

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  28. Routine outcome measures are increasingly being mandated across mental health services in Australia and overseas. This requirement includes forensic mental health services, but their utility in such specialist...

    Authors: Jonathon Adams, Stuart D. M. Thomas, Tobias Mackinnon and Damien Eggleton

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:35

    Content type: Research article

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  29. Optimising quality of life (QOL) for service users in a forensic hospital is an important treatment objective. The factors which contribute to QOL in this setting are currently unclear. The aim of this study w...

    Authors: Padraic O’ Flynn, Roisin O’ Regan, Ken O’ Reilly and Harry G Kennedy

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2018 18:16

    Content type: Research article

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  30. Offenders with personality disorder are supported by health, criminal justice, social care and third sector services. These services are tasked with reducing risk, improving health and improving social outcome...

    Authors: Catriona Connell, Vivek Furtado, Elizabeth A. McKay and Swaran P. Singh

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2017 17:368

    Content type: Research article

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  31. Depression is the most common form of mental disorder among inmates, with a prevalence much higher than in the general population. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of depression among inmates and ide...

    Authors: Gambhir Shrestha, Deepak Kumar Yadav, Nidesh Sapkota, Dharanidhar Baral, Birendra Kumar Yadav, Avaniendra Chakravartty and Paras Kumar Pokharel

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2017 17:348

    Content type: Research article

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  32. The biological underpinnings of serious violent behaviors in patients with schizophrenia remain unclear. The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics of brain morphometry in patients with schizoph...

    Authors: Noriomi Kuroki, Hiroko Kashiwagi, Miho Ota, Masanori Ishikawa, Hiroshi Kunugi, Noriko Sato, Naotsugu Hirabayashi and Toshio Ota

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2017 17:105

    Content type: Research article

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    The Erratum to this article has been published in BMC Psychiatry 2017 17:136

  33. Offenders with mental disorders constitute a particularly exposed group in society, with high rates of morbidity, mortality, and social deprivation. Often thought of primarily as perpetrators, these individual...

    Authors: Mats Persson, Henrik Belfrage and Marianne Kristiansson

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2017 17:91

    Content type: Research article

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  34. Previous studies have investigated factors associated with outcome at Mental Health Review Tribunals (MHRTs) in forensic psychiatric patients; however, dynamic variables such as treatment compliance and substa...

    Authors: Amelia Jewell, Kimberlie Dean, Tom Fahy and Alexis E. Cullen

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2017 17:25

    Content type: Research article

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  35. Mental illness is highly prevalent among prisoners. Although psychotropic medicines can ameliorate symptoms of mental illness, prescribers in prisons must balance clinical needs against risks to safety and sec...

    Authors: Lamiece Hassan, Jane Senior, Roger T. Webb, Martin Frisher, Mary P. Tully, David While and Jenny J. Shaw

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2016 16:346

    Content type: Research article

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  36. There is a lack of research in forensic settings examining therapeutic relationships. A structured communication approach, placing patients’ perspectives at the heart of discussions about their care, was used ...

    Authors: Douglas MacInnes, Catherine Kinane, Janet Parrott, Jacqueline Mansfield, Tom Craig, Sandra Eldridge, Ian Marsh, Claire Chan, Natalia Hounsome, George Harrison and Stefan Priebe

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2016 16:335

    Content type: Research article

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  38. Despite the high prevalence rate of mental health problems among young prisoners, little is known about the longitudinal course and covariates of their mental health symptoms during incarceration, especially t...

    Authors: Leonel C. Gonçalves, Jérôme Endrass, Astrid Rossegger and Anja J. E. Dirkzwager

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2016 16:91

    Content type: Research article

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  40. The high prevalence of serious mental illness (SMI) in prisons remains a challenge for mental health services. Many prisoners with SMI do not receive care. Screening tools have been developed but better detect...

    Authors: Krishna Pillai, Paul Rouse, Brian McKenna, Jeremy Skipworth, James Cavney, Rees Tapsell, Alexander Simpson and Dominic Madell

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2016 16:9

    Content type: Research article

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  41. Patients admitted to a secure forensic hospital are at risk of a long hospital stay. Forensic hospital beds are a scarce and expensive resource and ability to identify the factors predicting length of stay at ...

    Authors: Mary Davoren, Orla Byrne, Paul O’Connell, Helen O’Neill, Ken O’Reilly and Harry G. Kennedy

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2015 15:301

    Content type: Research article

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  42. The relationship between mental illness and violent crime is complex because of the involvement of many other confounding risk factors. In the present study, we analysed psychiatric and neurological disorders ...

    Authors: Tomas Moberg, Marlene Stenbacka, Anders Tengström, Erik G. Jönsson, Peter Nordström and Jussi Jokinen

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2015 15:299

    Content type: Research article

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  43. Few studies have investigated absconding from forensic hospitals and there are no published studies of interventions aimed at reducing these incidents in forensic settings. We present a study of the impact of ...

    Authors: Alexander I F Simpson, Stephanie R Penney, Stephanie Fernane and Treena Wilkie

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2015 15:103

    Content type: Research article

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  44. Psychiatric expert opinions are supposed to assess the accused individual’s risk of reoffending based on a valid scientific foundation. In contrast to specific recidivism, general recidivism has only been poor...

    Authors: Marlon O Pflueger, Irina Franke, Marc Graf and Henning Hachtel

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2015 15:62

    Content type: Research article

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  45. Detention in a secure forensic psychiatric hospital may inhibit engagement and recovery. Having validated the clinician rated DUNDRUM-3 (programme completion) and DUNDRUM-4 (recovery) in a forensic hospital, w...

    Authors: Mary Davoren, Sarah Hennessy, Catherine Conway, Seamus Marrinan, Pauline Gill and Harry G Kennedy

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2015 15:61

    Content type: Research article

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  46. Psychopathy, a severe disorder of personality, is well represented in the criminal and forensic psychiatric population and is significantly associated with increased risk of violence and crime. Fire-setting is...

    Authors: Annika Thomson, Jari Tiihonen, Jouko Miettunen, Eila Sailas, Matti Virkkunen and Nina Lindberg

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2015 15:44

    Content type: Research article

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  47. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults is one of the predictive and treatable risk factors for delinquency, including intimate partner violence (IPV). Effective treatment of IPV needs to add...

    Authors: Nannet JL Buitelaar, Jocelyne A Posthumus, Agnes Scholing and Jan K Buitelaar

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2014 14:336

    Content type: Study protocol

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  48. Dynamic risk factors need to be assessed repeatedly over time rather than at a single time point to examine the relationship with violence. This predictive validity study sought to examine the degree of dynami...

    Authors: Richard Whittington, Johan Håkon Bjørngaard, Andrew Brown, Rajan Nathan, Stephen Noblett and Beverley Quinn

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2014 14:323

    Content type: Research article

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  49. In low income countries, mental disorders are a neglected health problem. Mental disorders are influenced by a number of factors in people's everyday life of which intimate partner violence (IPV) commonly form...

    Authors: Aline Umubyeyi, Ingrid Mogren, Joseph Ntaganira and Gunilla Krantz

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2014 14:315

    Content type: Research article

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  50. Antiandrogen therapy (ADT) has been used for 30 years to treat pedophilic patients. The aim of the treatment is a reduction in sexual drive and, in consequence, a reduced risk of recidivism. Yet the therapeuti...

    Authors: Kirsten Jordan, Peter Fromberger, Helge Laubinger, Peter Dechent and Jürgen L Müller

    Citation: BMC Psychiatry 2014 14:142

    Content type: Case report

    Published on:

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