The Course of Psychiatric Symptoms During Remand Imprisonment

Abstract

Imprisonment may pose a risk for unintended effects such as deterioration of psychiatric symptoms. Therefore, it is pivotal to understand the relation between imprisonment and the course of psychiatric symptoms, but previous studies are inconclusive. The current study followed up the psychiatric symptoms of newly admitted remand prisoners to one Dutch remand prison using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and also studied possible related pre-existing variables. On average we found an overall slight—yet clinically marginal—improvement of psychiatric, in particular affective symptoms. One in three prisoners deteriorated and prisoners with psychotic disorders less often deteriorated. Other variables were not related. Overall, psychiatric symptoms remain stable over time during early remand imprisonment independent of most psychiatric disorders. The context in the Dutch prison studied appears to be adequately organized in terms of handling psychiatric stability, but we notice that prison contexts may vary to a large extend.