Clinical features, cases of psychiatric diagnosis and socio-demographic characteristics of patients with polyclinics of forensic psychiatry in education research hospital

Abstract

Purpose: In this study, sociodemographic characteristics of the patients referred to our forensic psychiatry outpatient clinic will be highlighted in terms of their features such as age and educational status, and the scope of crime, substance use and clinical features and the most frequently diagnosed diagnoses will be determined. Methods: A total of 191 patients who were referred to the psychiatry outpatient clinic of the Training and Research Hospital between 01.01.2018 and 15.12.2018 by judicial authorities and outpatient admissions were included in the study. Sociodemographic features such as age, gender, educational status and clinical diagnoses and substance use cases were retrospectively reviewed. Findings: Of the forensic cases, 36 (18.8%) were female and 155 (81.2%) were male. The mean age of the group was 44.52 ± 16.522 (18-92) years. The level of education was 104 (54.45%) primary school, 72 (42.93%) secondary school and 15 (2.62%) high school. Of the cases, 137 had a history of psychiatric history, of which 100 were diagnosed. While 41 (34.45%) patients had mood disorders with the first place in the diagnostic distribution evaluated within the scope of international classification (ICID-10), 37 (31.09%) people had schizophrenia and delusional disorders. The Ministry of Justice is most frequently asked for an assessment under the Article 432 of the Turkish Criminal Code, while the crimes committed are predominantly based on physical attacks. Result: This study aimed to make an inference in terms of cause and effect of crime and punishment duo. In cases where violent crimes were predominant, it was concluded that there were very few psychiatric disorders, no criminal capacity under the scope of criminal capacity and the cases were followed with social healing.