Background: It is now well established that there are core cognitive impairments associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. In parallel with our increased understanding of these core deficits, our awareness that mentally ill offenders (MIOs) are at additional risk of cognitive impairment due to an increased rate of traumatic brain injury and substance abuse has also grown. Absent from the literature is evidence of whether these cognitive impairments change over longer periods of time in MIO’s and whether these changes, or baseline abilities, impact an individual’s risk of violence. Furthermore, the negative impact head injury has on an individuals’ cognitive, behavioural and psychological functioning is well documented. These changes can lead to an increased likelihood of violence and crime, yet there is currently a scarcity of knowledge regarding the prevalence of head injury within mentally ill offenders in Scotland and its association with risk-related outcomes. Aims: The aims of the present thesis were to; (a) Examine the course of cognition in N=49 mentally ill offenders who underwent neuropsychological assessment while in the State Hospital, Scotland in 2004-5, and assess whether baseline or change in cognition predicts violent incidents or risk at follow-up, and; (b) Examine the cross-sectional association between head injury, substance abuse and risk-related outcomes of all individuals within the forensic network in Scotland for whom data could be extracted (N=428). Hypotheses: (a) We hypothesized that processing speed, verbal comprehension, working memory, delayed verbal memory, delayed non-verbal memory, impulsivity, inattention and problem-solving would decline over a 10-year period, and that deficits in impulsivity, emotion recognition, working memory and delayed memory would predict patients’ risk-related outcomes in a sample of mentally ill offenders. (b) It was also hypothesized that the presence of head injury and/or substance abuse within patients would predict worse risk-related outcomes, namely: quantity of violent offences, risk of harm to self, risk of harm to others and severity of violent offences. Analysis: We conducted a series of repeated measures MANOVAs, MANCOVAs and hierarchical linear regressions in SPSS Statistics to test our hypotheses. Individuals with a primary or secondary diagnosis of a learning disability were excluded. Results: (a) Our results propose that cognitive abilities significantly change over time (F(1.51, 30.1) = 5.98, p = .011), but direction of change is ability dependent. We found that impulsivity (Effect Size (ES) = .253), inattention (ES = .233), working memory (ES = .288) and auditory delayed memory (ES= .268) worsen over time. Measures of impulsivity and working memory significantly predicted some, but not all, risk-related outcomes, however these effects became diluted once additional variables with shared variance were added into the predictive models. We did not find that traumatic brain injury, substance misuse or alcohol misuse significantly mediated change in cognition over time. (b) In the national cohort study, results suggested that head injury had a significant effect on HCR total scores, F(1,259) = 6.679, p = .010 (partial eta square = .025), violence during admission (χ2 = 5.545, p = .022) and violent offences at a .1 p-value only, F(1,259) = 3.495, p = .063 (partial eta square = .013). Drug misuse only had a significant impact on total violent offences, F(1,259) = 8.933, p = .003 (partial eta square = .033) and nothing else. Furthermore, the interaction between alcohol misuse and schizophrenia also only had impact on total violent offences, F(1, 259) = 7.516, p = .007 (partial eta square = .028). Head injury was not significantly associated with either historical or current self-harm, however alcohol misuse, drug misuse and schizophrenia were. Conclusions: Our results highlight the unstable nature of cognition in mentally ill offenders and the impact that head injury has on violence-related outcomes, over and above substance misuse and a diagnosis of schizophrenia. This has potentially renovating implications for clinical practice regarding risk management, assessment, and treatment planning.

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The purpose of this study was to develop a medico-judicial framework for the rehabilitation of forensic psychiatric patients in Zimbabwe. The study used the grounded theory approach utilising a mixed sequential dominant status design. Purposive sampling of key stakeholders was the primary method and theoretical sampling became necessary as the study evolved in the qualitative phase. A confirmatory retrospective document review of 119 files of patients was done in the quantitative phase. Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual canon of field, habitus and capital was utilised as the theoretical point of departure for the study. Findings and results showed dislocation and dissonance between and within the habitus of social fields the judiciary, health (medical) and the prison systems with an ensuing hysteretic effect that negatively affected the outcome of forensic psychiatric rehabilitation in special institutions in Zimbabwe. Forensic psychiatric patients were caught up in a double bind situation of aligning to both of the contradictory functions of the medical and the prison systems. The result of this hysteretic scenario seemed to breed some kind of rehabilitative schizophrenia. The developed medico-judicial framework is projected to transform the libido dominandi of the present into a widened scope of therapeutic jurisprudence. The medico-judicial framework is forwarding the forensic psychiatric practitioner to a new address since it has changed its residence from the special institution to the forensic psychiatric hospital. It is inviting the person involved with forensic psychiatric rehabilitation to begin again, inciting him or her to be open to the possibilities of mapping a path through the tangled growth of current realities into an increased width and depth of comprehensive forensic psychiatric practice that follows an empowering legislative prescript / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

The purpose of this study was to develop a medico-judicial framework for the rehabilitation of forensic psychiatric patients in Zimbabwe. The study used the grounded theory approach utilising a mixed sequential dominant status design. Purposive sampling of key stakeholders was the primary method and theoretical sampling became necessary as the study evolved in the qualitative phase. A confirmatory retrospective document review of 119 files of patients was done in the quantitative phase. Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual canon of field, habitus and capital was utilised as the theoretical point of departure for the study. Findings and results showed dislocation and dissonance between and within the habitus of social fields the judiciary, health (medical) and the prison systems with an ensuing hysteretic effect that negatively affected the outcome of forensic psychiatric rehabilitation in special institutions in Zimbabwe. Forensic psychiatric patients were caught up in a double bind situation of aligning to both of the contradictory functions of the medical and the prison systems. The result of this hysteretic scenario seemed to breed some kind of rehabilitative schizophrenia. The developed medico-judicial framework is projected to transform the libido dominandi of the present into a widened scope of therapeutic jurisprudence. The medico-judicial framework is forwarding the forensic psychiatric practitioner to a new address since it has changed its residence from the special institution to the forensic psychiatric hospital. It is inviting the person involved with forensic psychiatric rehabilitation to begin again, inciting him or her to be open to the possibilities of mapping a path through the tangled growth of current realities into an increased width and depth of comprehensive forensic psychiatric practice that follows an empowering legislative prescript / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

Emotionsreglering har de senaste åren fått alltmer uppmärksamhet och stöd som en faktor associerat med substansbruk. Däremot finns till författarnas vetskap ingen tidigare forskning som undersökt sambandet mellan emotionsreglering och substansbruk i ett rättspsykiatriskt urval. Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva substansbruket och utforska associationer mellan emotionsreglering och substansbruk i ett rättspsykiatriskt urval. Deltagarna (N = 98; 13 % kvinnor) rekryterades från en kohort av rättspsykiatriska patienter i Sverige från 2016-11-01 till 2020-11-30.  Data samlades in genom journalgranskningar, självskattningar och kompletterades med semistrukturerade intervjuer. För att beskriva substansbruk i gruppen användes deskriptiv statistik. Vidare användes instrumentet Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale (DERS) för att undersöka deltagarnas svårigheter med emotionsreglering. Som mått på substansbruk använde författarna debutålder av substanskonsumtion och antalet testade substanser. För att utforska sambandet mellan emotionsreglering och substansbruk användes korrelationsmatriser.  Resultatet visade att 64,3 % av deltagarna någon gång hade diagnostiserats med substansbrukssyndrom. Vidare hade 79.5 % av urvalet någon gång använt cannabis och hade i större utsträckning använt andra substanser jämfört med en generell svensk population. Studien fann inga signifikanta samband mellan emotionsreglering och substansbruk, vilket går emot tidigare forskning. Det motsägelsefulla resultatet kan bero på metodologiska skillnader och/eller att deltagarna hade andra gemensamma och inflytelserika erfarenheter i relation till emotionsreglering som påverkade resultatet. / Emotional regulation has in recent years gained more attention and support as a factor associated with substance use. However, to the authors knowledge, no research has examined the association between emotional regulation and substance use in a forensic psychiatric sample. The aims of this study were to describe substance use and examine associations between emotional regulation and substance use in a sample of forensic psychiatric patients. Participants (N = 98; 13% female) were recruited from a cohort of forensic psychiatric patients in Sweden from 2016-11-01 to 2020-11-30.  Data were collected through file information, self-reports and complemented with semi-structured interviews. The study used descriptive data to report the use of substances within the sample. Furthermore, the study used the instrument Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale (DERS) to examine the participants' emotional dysregulation. To measure substance use, the authors used age of onset of substance consumption and the number of substances tested as variables. Correlational matrices were used to explore the association between emotional regulation and substance use.  The results showed that 64.3% of the participants had at some point been diagnosed with SUD. Furthermore, 79.5 % of the sample had at some point used cannabis and had to a large extent used other substances. No significant associations were found between emotional regulation and substance use. The result goes against previous research, methodological differences may cause this contradiction. Another possible explanation is that the participants had other common and influential experiences in relation to emotional regulation that influenced the result.