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Police Admissions to a Psychiatric Hospital

Demographic and Clinical Differences Between Ethnic Groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John Dunn  and
Thomas A. Fahy
John Dunn
Affiliation:
Senior Registrar in Psychiatry, The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ
Thomas A. Fahy*
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Psychiatry, The Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

Between October 1983 and December 1985, 268 patients were brought by police to a psychiatric hospital in south London under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983. Comparisons were made between ‘blacks' and ‘whites' on several clinical and demographic variables. The vast majority of admissions received a psychiatric diagnosis. An excess of black admissions was recorded. Black men were younger, were more likely than whites to be given neuroleptics, to be put on compulsory orders, and to be given an out-patient appointment when discharged from hospital. More black men were given a case-note diagnosis of schizophrenia or drug-induced psychosis. The differences in clinical management between ethnic groups could be at least partly accounted for by these differences in diagnosis. Treatment did not appear to be independent of diagnosis among the black admissions.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 156 , Issue 3 , March 1990 , pp. 373 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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