Depression in elderly life sentence prisoners
Depression in elderly life sentence prisoners
BACKGROUND: The life sentence population is growing older and increasing in number. Despite the potential negative physical and social environment in prisons little is known about the prevalence or aetiology of depression in elderly 'lifers'. AIMS: To determine the prevalence and associated risk factors of depression in elderly life sentence prisoners. METHOD: One hundred and twenty-one elderly life/indeterminate sentence prisoners from two category B prisons in the United Kingdom were interviewed using the Geriatric Depression Scale and the relationship with prison and non prison specific variables analysed. RESULTS: Over half of the prisoners scored above the threshold for mild depression. The length of sentence served and other prison related variables were not associated with the depression score. However, the imported chronic physical ill health was strongly related to depression score. CONCLUSIONS: Depression in long term prisoners is common and is related to the burden of imported chronic ill health as opposed to specific effects of imprisonment
depression, prevalence, risk factors, social environment
957-962
Murdoch, Nicholas
61550fc1-61b3-43f7-90c1-82a917546e67
Morris, Paul
ea079a74-1fad-42fa-b7d6-243470363d1b
Holmes, Clive
ada5abf3-8459-4cf7-be40-3f4e9391cc96
April 2008
Murdoch, Nicholas
61550fc1-61b3-43f7-90c1-82a917546e67
Morris, Paul
ea079a74-1fad-42fa-b7d6-243470363d1b
Holmes, Clive
ada5abf3-8459-4cf7-be40-3f4e9391cc96
Murdoch, Nicholas, Morris, Paul and Holmes, Clive
(2008)
Depression in elderly life sentence prisoners.
International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 23 (9), .
(doi:10.1002/gps.2017).
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The life sentence population is growing older and increasing in number. Despite the potential negative physical and social environment in prisons little is known about the prevalence or aetiology of depression in elderly 'lifers'. AIMS: To determine the prevalence and associated risk factors of depression in elderly life sentence prisoners. METHOD: One hundred and twenty-one elderly life/indeterminate sentence prisoners from two category B prisons in the United Kingdom were interviewed using the Geriatric Depression Scale and the relationship with prison and non prison specific variables analysed. RESULTS: Over half of the prisoners scored above the threshold for mild depression. The length of sentence served and other prison related variables were not associated with the depression score. However, the imported chronic physical ill health was strongly related to depression score. CONCLUSIONS: Depression in long term prisoners is common and is related to the burden of imported chronic ill health as opposed to specific effects of imprisonment
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Published date: April 2008
Keywords:
depression, prevalence, risk factors, social environment
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Local EPrints ID: 70213
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/70213
PURE UUID: 4ab8f3c1-2787-4ce6-887a-db43c34de28e
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Date deposited: 27 Jan 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:43
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Author:
Nicholas Murdoch
Author:
Paul Morris
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