Functional mental capacity is not independent of the severity of psychosis.

Background: Function-specific mental capacities are the legal criteria for competence. These are regarded as superior to clinical assessments of mental state and general function.

Aims: To determine whether tests of fitness to plead and capacity to consent are independent of each other and independent of mental state and global function in psychosis.

Psychiatric morbidity in the male sentenced Irish prisons population.

Background: This is the first epidemiologically representative cross-sectional study of psychiatric morbidity using research diagnostic instruments in sentenced prisoners in Ireland.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and psychiatric service requirements.

Method: We interviewed 340 men serving a fixed sentence (14.

Psychiatric morbidity among women prisoners newly committed and amongst remanded and sentenced women in the Irish prison system.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity, substance misuse problems and related health and social problems among women prisoners newly committed and a cross-section remanded and sentenced in the Irish prison population. In 2002 women represented 10.7% (1043) of all persons committed to the Irish Prison system, and 3.

Structural violence and schizophrenia.

Despite clear evidence of a substantial biological basis to schizophrenia, there is also evidence that social, economic and political factors have considerable relevance to the clinical features, treatment and outcome of the illness. Individuals from lower socio-economic groups have an earlier age at first presentation and longer durations of untreated illness, both of which are associated with poor outcome. Individuals with schizophrenia are over-represented in the homeless population.

A paranoid migrant family - folie à famille.

This report describes a case of folie à famille in which an African man (Mr X), his wife and three daughters travelled around the world as Mr X transmitted his persecutory delusions to his family members. Mr X who had previously had two brief admissions in the UK and in Ireland, received an adequate trial of antipsychotic treatment in his third admission with us in Dublin. During informal contact with his daughter B, it became apparent that the whole family shared his delusions.

Mental Health Policy in Ireland 1984-2004: theory, overview and future directions.

Recent years have seen renewed emphasis on the importance of mental health policy as a key component of health and social policy at both national and international levels. In 2001 the European Commission produced a public health framework for mental health in the EU. In the same year, the World Health Organisation devoted its annual health report to mental health and called on countries to formulate, update and implement mental health policies.

Pseudophaeochromocytoma associated with clozapine treatment.

We describe a 44 year old man with treatment resistant schizophrenia who developed pseudophaeochromocytoma on clozapine with high blood pressure, tachycardia and elevated 24 hour urinary catecholamines. All resolved on discontinuing clozapine. We reviewed the literature and found five other cases.

Long-stay forensic psychiatric inpatients in the Republic of Ireland: aggregated needs assessment.

Objectives: To profile the current cohort of forensic psychiatric inpatients in the Republic of Ireland, comparing psychiatric healthcare and placement needs of long-stay patients with those more recently admitted.

Method: All forensic psychiatric inpatients in the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum on a census date were included in the study. Patients and key worker were interviewed using a standardised schedule and validated research instruments.

Liaison psychiatry in rural general practice.

The recent government health strategy document described the integration between primary and secondary care in Ireland as often poor and outlined plans to redress this deficit. In mental health care, the gradual shift away from institutions over the past four decades has resulted in the GP becoming the most frequent professional contact for people with mental disorders. However, access to specialist opinion is usually available only for the fraction of psychiatric presentations which are formally referred to the psychiatric service.

Home-based treatment in Monaghan: the first two years.

Objectives: To describe a home-based treatment (HBT) service. To profile the patient population using HBT. To determine why HBT was used and to record disposal.

Irish Travellers and forensic mental health.

Objectives: To determine whether Irish Travellers are over-represented amongst transfers from prison to psychiatric hospital. If so, to determine whether this represents an excess over the proportion of Irish Travellers committed to prison.

Method: Irish Travellers admitted to the National Forensic Psychiatry service were identified from a case register over three years 1997-1999.

Interaction of forensic and general psychiatric services in Ireland: learning the lessons or repeating the mistakes?

Objective: General psychiatric bed numbers in Ireland have reduced markedly in recent decades. In other jurisdictions such reductions have been accompanied by increases in the prevalence rates of severe mental illness among prisoners. We examined variations in per capita provision of local psychiatric beds and community residential places in Ireland for associations with forensic psychiatric service utilisation.

Infanticide and child murder - admissions to the Central Mental Hospital 1850-2000.

Infanticide and child murders have been known to all civilisations throughout time. This study looks at the problem from an Irish perspective, particularly with regard to the forensic psychiatry service. The case notes and legal files of 64 women admitted to the Central Mental Hospital (CMH), Dublin, between May 1850 and 2000 were examined.

Guilty but insane: the insanity defence in Ireland, 1850-1995.

Background: This is a retrospective study describing sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of an almost complete sample of insanity acquittees in Ireland between 1850-1995.

Method: Case records and legal files were examined for each of the 437 patients admitted to the Central Mental Hospital under guilty but insane criteria, and a profile of sociodemographic, forensic and clinical data completed in each.

Results: The number of insanity acquittees has fallen five-fold since the 19th century.

Forensic psychiatry and elderly people--a retrospective review.

Elderly offenders have rarely been studied. We describe a population of elderly offenders referred to a forensic psychiatric service over a 20-year period (1972-1992). Patients over 65 years charged with a criminal offence were eligible for inclusion.

Psychiatric morbidity in sentenced segregated HIV-positive prisoners.

In this comparative study with a control group of prisoners, psychiatric morbidity was measured in two groups of sentenced prisoners, each group completing the GHQ-30 and 21-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Group 1 consisted of 40 segregated HIV-positive prisoners and group 2 a matched control group in the main prison who had no history of HIV seropositivity. All members of group 1 had a history of intravenous drug abuse.

Consultation liaison psychiatry within the general hospital: referral pattern and management.

The emergence of consultation psychiatry as an important psychiatric subspecialty is in part due to the siting of psychiatric units in general hospitals, the manifest advances in medical technology and the increasing elderly population needing specialist care. This paper describes an evaluation of all referrals to a liaison psychiatry unit in a 550 bed general hospital over a six month period. 205 requests for psychiatric consultation were received, which represented 2% of all admissions.

XYY genotype and crime: 2 cases.

The presence of 47, XYY genotype has stimulated much debate as to whether these men are more likely to indulge in criminal and violent behaviour than 46, XY males. Two cases of XYY men who had committed murder are described, and the current literature regarding criminality and psychopathology in XYY males is reviewed. It is important that Forensic Psychiatrists with XYY patients are aware of these issues as the link between XYY genotype and criminality may be raised in court.

Functions of the seventh cranial nerve.

The somatosensory fibers in the seventh cranial nerves convey cutaneous information from the pinnae and are overshadowed in importance by the gustatory afferents in the chordae tympanorum, which, while also carrying parasympathetic fibers to the mucous glands, play an essential role in the health and physiology of the mouth, nose, and conjunctiva. The motor fibers of the facial nerve proper activate the mimetic muscles, and so have a dual role in the expression of emotion and the silent or unconscious communication of thought.