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Psychiatric Problems in Prisoners: Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention

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Emerging Issues in Prison Health

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Abstract

Prisoners have a high prevalence of mental disorders. Suicide is a leading cause of death in prison, and self-harming behaviour and suicide attempts are common. Therapeutic services should be organized according to the needs of prisoners with severe mental disturbances. This includes psychiatric inpatient care and psychiatric outpatient care. In general psychiatric care in prison should provide the same quality of psychiatric care as that available in the community. Psychiatrists working in prisons should insist on being able to offer psychiatric treatment without being implicated in the correction system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Justizvollzugskrankenhaus Berlin, Saatwinkler Damm 1a, 13627, Berlin, Germany

    Annette Opitz-Welke

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  1. Annette Opitz-Welke
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Correspondence to Annette Opitz-Welke .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Bernice S. Elger

  2. Federal Office of Public Health , Bern, Switzerland

    Catherine Ritter

  3. Faculty 'Health and Social Work', Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt, Germany

    Heino Stöver

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Opitz-Welke, A. (2017). Psychiatric Problems in Prisoners: Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention. In: Elger, B., Ritter, C., Stöver, H. (eds) Emerging Issues in Prison Health. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7558-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7558-8_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7556-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7558-8

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