scholarly journals The Effects of Mental Illness on Capital Sentencing in the State of Oregon

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mirtill Csikos
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Joseph ◽  
H Sankar ◽  
D Nambiar

Abstract The fourth target of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 advocates for the promotion of mental health and wellbeing. The Indian state of Kerala is recognized for its gains in health and development but has substantial burden of mental health ailments. Historical analysis is vital to understand the pattern of mental health morbidity. The current study focusses on comparable estimates available from three largescale population-based surveys in India to explore trends in prevalence of mental health disorders over the years and map resources and infrastructure available for mental health care in Kerala. We undertook a secondary analysis of national demographic surveys from 2002 to 2018 which reported information on mental health and availability of health infrastructure and human resources. Data were collated and descriptive analyses were conducted. We compared the national and state level estimates over the years to study the trend in the prevalence of mental health disability. The prevalence of mental retardation and intellectual disability in Kerala increased from 194 per hundred thousand persons in 2002 to 300 per hundred thousand persons in 2018, two times higher to the national average. The prevalence of mental illness increased from 272 per hundred thousand people to 400 per hundred thousand people in sixteen years. The prevalence was higher among males (statistical significance was not indicated) in mental illness and mental retardation. 2018 data showed that the public sector had 0.01 hospitals and 5.53 beds per hundred thousand persons available for mental health treatment. Results showed a substantial increase in mental health illness over the 16-year study period that has affected males and females, as well as all social classes of the state. The current health infrastructure and human resources in the public sector of the state are inadequate to meet the current burden of the problem and to ensure universal access to care for its population. Key messages The trend in prevalence of mental health disorders in the state is increasing across the years. There is a mismatch between the extend of the problem and resources available in public sector.


1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Aldigé Hiday

In the process of involuntary commitment,1the state makes available its coercive power for use as a psychiatric technology. This application of the state's power is based on the idea that mental illness can make a person not only sick but also unaware of the illness, and dangerous or unable to care for his/her basic needs; thus, coercion may have to be used to secure the mentally ill person's and/or the public's safety, and to give treatment until the illness abates.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. E8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis J. Jareczek ◽  
Marshall T. Holland ◽  
Matthew A. Howard ◽  
Timothy Walch ◽  
Taylor J. Abel

Neurosurgery for the treatment of psychological disorders has a checkered history in the United States. Prior to the advent of antipsychotic medications, individuals with severe mental illness were institutionalized and subjected to extreme therapies in an attempt to palliate their symptoms. Psychiatrist Walter Freeman first introduced psychosurgery, in the form of frontal lobotomy, as an intervention that could offer some hope to those patients in whom all other treatments had failed. Since that time, however, the use of psychosurgery in the United States has waxed and waned significantly, though literature describing its use is relatively sparse. In an effort to contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of psychosurgery, the authors describe the history of psychosurgery in the state of Iowa and particularly at the University of Iowa Department of Neurosurgery. An interesting aspect of psychosurgery at the University of Iowa is that these procedures have been nearly continuously active since Freeman introduced the lobotomy in the 1930s. Frontal lobotomies and transorbital leukotomies were performed by physicians in the state mental health institutions as well as by neurosurgeons at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (formerly known as the State University of Iowa Hospital). Though the early technique of frontal lobotomy quickly fell out of favor, the use of neurosurgery to treat select cases of intractable mental illness persisted as a collaborative treatment effort between psychiatrists and neurosurgeons at Iowa. Frontal lobotomies gave way to more targeted lesions such as anterior cingulotomies and to neuromodulation through deep brain stimulation. As knowledge of brain circuits and the pathophysiology underlying mental illness continues to grow, surgical intervention for psychiatric pathologies is likely to persist as a viable treatment option for select patients at the University of Iowa and in the larger medical community.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-285
Author(s):  
Christina Fawcett ◽  
Steven Kohm

The action-adventure video games Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) and Batman: Arkham City (2011) draw on familiar comic book narratives, themes and characters to situate players in a world of participatory violence, crime and madness. In the first game, the player-as-Batman is situated in Arkham Asylum, a high-security facility for the criminally insane and supervillains that also temporarily houses a general population of prisoners from Blackgate Penitentiary. The elision of criminality and mental illness becomes amplified in the second game with the establishment of Arkham City, a combined facility that conflates asylum and prison, completely dissolving any distinction between crime and madness. We draw on Rafter’s conceptual framework of popular criminology to seriously interrogate the representation of violence, crime and madness in these games. More than simply texts offering popular explanations for crime, the games directly implicate the player in violence enacted upon the bodies of criminals and patients alike. Violence is necessary to move the action of the game forward and evokes a range of emotional responses from players who draw from personal experience and other cultural and media representations as they navigate the game. We argue that while the game celebrates violence and the brutal conditions of incarceration, it also offers possibilities for subversive and critical readings. While working to affirm assumptions about crime and mental illness, the game also provides a visceral and visual critique of excessive punishment by the state as a source of injustice for those deemed mad or bad.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 589-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
BS Chavan ◽  
Subhash Das ◽  
Rohit Garg ◽  
Sonia Puri ◽  
Aravind BA Banavaram

Background: Mental illness results in a plethora of distressing issues, has tremendous socio-economic impact and causes socio-occupational dysfunction in the individual as well as the caregivers. There is a felt need to explore the disability caused by mental illness and the associated socio-economic impact at the population level in a developing nation like India. Aims: To elucidate the disability and socio-economic impact associated with mental illness at the individual and household levels for the state of Punjab in India. Method: This was a multisite cross-sectional study carried out during 2015–2016 (as a part of the National Mental Health Survey of India) in three districts and one urban metro area of Punjab. The sample was selected using multi-stage, stratified, random cluster sampling technique, with random selection based on Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) at different stages. A validated set of questions was used to assess the socio-economic impact of mental illness and the Sheehan Disability Scale was used to document self-perceived disability among individuals with mental morbidity. Median (IQR) and proportions were used to summarize quantitative and qualitative data, respectively Results: Subjects with any mental morbidity reported disability of varying severities across different domains of life; family life was affected the most (70.1%). One in every six persons reported that their mental illness interfered with their daily activities to a large extent. Economic burden was high and a typical family would spend about INR 1500/month (US$23) towards the treatment of its member with mental morbidity. Family members had to forego their work for at least 7 days in 3 months to take care of their relative with mental illness. Conclusion: Mental illness causes disability in the individual and has tremendous socio-economic impact on the family, incapacitating a family’s productivity to a large extent and thus affecting the society.


Author(s):  
Samuel Oppong ◽  
Irene A. Kretchy ◽  
Emelia P. Imbeah ◽  
Barima A. Afrane

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Teresa Gardocka

The subject of these considerations is the deprivation of freedom ordered to diag-nose the state of an individual’s/person’s mental health. Polish law provides for such a diagnostic deprivation of freedom in the event of a suspected offense with a simultaneous doubt as to the person’s sanity at the time of the committing the act (Code of Criminal Procedure), doubt as to mental illness beings a cause of behavior threatening one’s own life or health, or the lives of others (Act on the Protection of Mental Health) and the exist-ence of a mental illness as a reason for incapacitation (Code of Civil Procedure). These legal institutions differ as for constitutional justification (Article 31 point 3) of the Polish Constitution) and their permissible duration. These differences are the main subject of the analysis. Particularly doubtful seems the possibility of diagnostic deprivation of freedom provided for in the proceedings on incapacitation, as to its duration (it may last up to 3 months).


Author(s):  
Yumna Minty ◽  
Mahomed Y.H. Moosa ◽  
Fatima Y. Jeenah

Background: An increasing number of South Africans utilise primary healthcare services (either in the state or private sector) for mental health concerns; hence, there is a need to objectively assess these doctors’ attitudes and knowledge of mental illness.Aim: To investigate aspects of knowledge and attitudes towards mental illness of a group of private and state-employed non-specialist medical doctors.Method: Doctors in the state sector who were working at a primary healthcare level and who were not working towards, or did not hold, a specialist qualification were considered eligible for the study. Doctors in the private sector who were working as general practitioners and who did not hold a specialist qualification were considered eligible for the study. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. A link to the study questionnaire, information about the study, details of the researcher and matters pertaining to informed consent were emailed to potential participants.Results: Of the 140 practitioners who responded to the survey, 51.4% (n = 72) worked in the state sector, 41.4% (n = 58) worked in the private sector and 7.1% (n = 10) worked in both the state and private sectors (χ21 = 45.31, p 0.010). The majority ( 50%) of participants in all three groups had a positive attitude towards mental illness (χ22 = 1.52, p = 0.468). Although there were no significant associations between attitude and socio-demographic characteristics (p 0.05), male SS doctors reported feeling less comfortable when dealing with mentally ill patients (p = 0.015); SS doctors who did not have family contact with mental illness were less likely to feel that mentally ill patients did not pose a risk to others (p = 0.007), and PS doctors under the age of 35 years were more likely to feel adequately trained to treat mental illness (p = 0.026). The majority ( 50%) of participants in all three groups had an adequate level of knowledge of mental illness (modal scores = 10). There were no significant associations between knowledge and socio-demographic characteristics (p 0.05).Conclusion: Despite the findings of a positive attitude and adequate knowledge of mental illness amongst the participants of this study, it is recommended that more targeted interventions are established to further improve mental health awareness and knowledge of doctors at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study.


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