Prevalence of psychiatric disorders on patients admissed by the Psychiatric Service in the Security Area of H.U.M.S. (University Hospital "Miguel Servet")

recent epidemiological studies highlight an increase in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders amongst prison inmates. The objective of this study to determine the most prevalent primary and secondary psychiatric disorders, socio-demographic data and average stay period amongst patients admitted to the Prison Unit of a general hospital as charges of the Psychiatric Service. retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study. The sample group consisted of a number of patients admitted into the Prison Unit as charges of the Psychiatric Service during a five year period (n=136). 90,4% were men and 9,6% were women. The average age was 34,18 years. The most prevalent primary psychiatric diagnoses were: Personality Disorder 22%, and Schizophrenic Disorder 16,3%. The most prevalent secondary psychiatric diagnoses were: Personality Disorder 11,9%, Substance Abuse 10,7%. the most prevalent primary and secondary psychiatric diagnosis was personality disorder. The existence of a high level of comorbidity of substance abuse-dependence was recorded. Prisons currently lack Mental Health multidisciplinary teams. This often means that the inmate must be transferred to a hospital with the increased work load and financial cost that this implies.