Mental illness and HIV amongst female inmates in Durban, South Africa

South African Journal of Psychiatry

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Mental illness and HIV amongst female inmates in Durban, South Africa
 
Creator Naidoo, Samantha Subramaney, Ugasvaree Paruk, Saeeda Ferreira, Liezel
 
Subject Psychiatry prevalence; mental illness; female inmates or prisoners; HIV and AIDS; South Africa
Description Background: There is limited data regarding the prevalence of mental illness and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) amongst female inmates in South Africa. Rehabilitation programmes can only be formulated once the needs of this population have been identified.Aim: This study aimed to measure the prevalence of mental illnesses, borderline and antisocial personality disorders and HIV amongst female inmates.Setting: The study was based at a correctional centre in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.Methods: This study forms part of a larger two-phased, mixed methods, sequential, explanatory design study. In phase one, 126 female inmates were interviewed using a clinical questionnaire and the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostics and Statistical Manual (DSM)-5 diagnoses – Research Version.Results: The following lifetime prevalence rates were found: depressive disorder 70.6%, alcohol use disorder 48.4%, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 46.8%, borderline personality disorder 33.3%, substance use disorder 31.7%, antisocial personality disorder 15.1% and psychotic disorder 4.8%. The prevalence of current adult attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder was 9.5%. A total of 39% of the participants admitted to past suicide attempts, whilst 64.3% reported past suicidal ideation and 36.5% had a current episode of a psychiatric disorder. A total of 64.3% of the participants were living with HIV. Although 90.4% had a lifetime psychiatric disorder, only 16.7% were previously diagnosed with a mental illness. The majority of inmates with lifetime disorders had psychiatric comorbidities.Conclusion: The high prevalence of mental illness and HIV amongst female inmates, and the fact that most with mental illness remain undiagnosed, is concerning. Improved screening, identification and treatment of mental illnesses in this population is needed to ensure optimal mental health outcomes and decreased recidivism.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Bursary from the Nedgroup Trust
Date 2022-01-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v28i0.1628
 
Source South African Journal of Psychiatry; Vol 28 (2022); 11 pages 2078-6786 1608-9685
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1628/2414 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1628/2415 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1628/2416 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1628/2417
 
Coverage Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 2019 female inmates between 18-65
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Samantha Naidoo, Ugasvaree Subramaney, Saeeda Paruk, Liezel Ferreira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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