Die rekenaarmatige diagnose van psigiese versteurings by gevangenes

Abstract

Article 1: The study evaluated the suitability of a DSM-IV based computerised diagnostic instrument (C-DIS) to be used in a South- African context. An availability sample consisting of 100 adult male prisoners was used. A total of 378 DSM-IV disorders were diagnosed, with antisocial personality disorder (60%), nicotine .dependence (58%) and alcohol dependence and misuse (50%) having the highest prevalence rates. Significant differences between language and racial groups were found, the most important being that (a) black (10.94%) and Coloured (9.68%) prisoners were more likely to suffer from specific phobia than white (4.30%) prisoners, (b) South-Sotho speaking prisoners (11.11%) were more phobic than Afrikaans speaking prisoners (6.88%), and (c) Coloureds were found to be the least depressed racial group. By examining the incidence of mental disorders, it was found that panic disorder (46.1%) and depression (15.4%) had the highest overall incidence during the previous year. Some disorders were more likely to develop during detention, the most notable being panic disorder (30.5%) and depression (16.9%). The vast majority (75%) of substance abuse disorders that developed in captivity were attributed to cannabis dependence. Crime-specific stressors were also identified as being the leading cause of posttraumatic stress disorder in prisoners. The results confirm that a computerised diagnostic instrument can be productively utilised to determine the epidemiology of psychopathology in a prison population.

Article: The purpose of the study was to determine whether data gathered by a computerised diagnostic measuring instrument could be used for additional epidemiological analysis. Epidemiological data from a study that utilised an availability sample (N=100) of adult male prisoners and provided by the C-DIS, was used. The data was processed in order to determine the prevalence of comorbid disorders, as well as the prevalence of psychopathology by means of eight chosen biographical categories. The independence of psychopathology with respect to every demographical variable was calculated by means of the chi-square test. The results showed that most disorders occurred comorbidly. By excluding substance related disorders, it was shown that anxiety disorders and antisocial personality disorder accounted for 86.6% and 79.5% of the total number of comorbid cases. By including substance related disorders, it was found that nicotine dependence was present in 68.2% of prisoners suffering from pathological gambling, in 65.2% of prisoners suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, and in 64.3% of prisoners suffering from manic episodes. All prisoners (100%) diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder also met the criteria for alcohol dependence and abuse. Antisocial personality disorder occurred in 60% of legal and 50% of illegal substance related disorders. No correlation could be found between psychopathology and age, marital status, academic education, crime, length of sentence, time served, race, and language. The results confirm that data obtained by the C-DIS can be successfully utilised to determine comorbidity and the prevalence of psychopathology, as well as to isolate psychopathology by means of any chosen biographical variable.