Deinstitutionalisation of mental health care in The Netherlands: towards an integrative approach.

Objective: The objective of this policy paper is to put recent developments in Dutch mental health reform in an international perspective and draw conclusions for future directions in policy. CONTEXT OF THE CASE: The practice of Western psychiatry in the second half and particularly in the last decade of the 20th century has fundamentally changed. Dutch psychiatry has traditionally been prominently bed-based and various policies in the last ten years have been intended to reduce the influence of the mental hospitals.

Alcoholic blackout for criminally relevant behavior.

Some criminal suspects claim to have had an alcohol-induced blackout during crimes they have committed. Are alcoholic blackouts a frequently occurring phenomenon, or are they merely used as an excuse to minimize responsibility? Frequency and type of blackout were surveyed retrospectively in two healthy samples (n = 256 and n = 100). Also, a comparison of blood alcohol concentrations was made between people who did and those who did not claim a blackout when stopped in a traffic-control study (n = 100).