Quality of Life in a Population of Dutch Prisoners with Mental Disorders: Relations with Psychopathological,Social,Demographical,Judicial and Penitentiary Factors

Abstract

Little research is done on the impact of psychopathology in prison settings as expressed in outcome measures such as Quality of Life (QOL). The aim of the present study was to examine the QOL of Dutch male prisoners with mental disorders and to compare their QOL with the QOL of three reference groups: the general Dutch population (GDP), psychiatric outpatients, and prisoners without mental disorders. Also, the QOL of the reference group of prisoners without mental disorders was compared with the QOL of the other reference groups. An additional aim was to investigate possible relationships between the QOL of the study population and psychopathological, social, demographic, judicial and penitentiary factors. The QOL of the study population (N = 71) was measured with the WHOQOL-Bref. In addition, psychopathological, social, demographic, judicial and penitentiary data were collected. The QOL of the study population was worse compared with the QOL of the GDP and prisoners without psychopathology but better than the QOL of the psychiatric outpatients. Within the study population, the impact of DSM-IV-TR Axis I and II disorders on experienced QOL was of a similar negative magnitude. Correlations between substance dependence or abuse, social and demographic variables, judicial/penitentiary variables and QOL were small or absent. Psychopathological factors explained the major part of the known QOL variance of the study population. The relatively good QOL of the imprisoned patient group, in comparison to the QOL of the outpatient group, leads to the recommendation to implement elements of the detention regime in regular psychiatric care.