Some years ago, a study showed that among young Swedish men who were sentenced to prison for violent or sexual offenses in early adulthood, most of them relapsed into crime on repeated occasions. Now, further research shows that those who have had severe mental illness are at increased risk of relapsing into criminality.
This is about people who need both earlier and more effective interventions from society, says André Tärnhäll, psychologist and researcher in forensic psychiatry at Lund University and the researcher behind the study.
Relapsed 23 times
According to the study, there was a greater risk that the convicted men who had a history of psychosis or bipolar disorder type 1 relapsed into crime than those without such a diagnosis. The men were followed on average for 6 years, and those with a history of severe mental illness relapsed on average 23 times, compared to 13 times among those without such a diagnosis.
In the study, he followed 266 men between 18 and 25 years old who were examined between 2010 and 2012 when they served prison sentences for violent or sexual offenses with physical contact.
One in ten participants had psychosis or bipolar disorder when they were in prison. Common factors among the men were ADHD diagnosis, severe norm-breaking behavior in childhood, early alcohol debut, and having been exposed to physical or psychological violence at home.
What stood out as a clear risk factor for later mental illness was children who before the age of ten displayed severe norm-breaking behavior. It can be a pattern of antisocial and aggressive behavior, says André Tärnhäll.
Do not seek open care
Many of those with a history of psychosis or bipolar disorder had been treated within psychiatric inpatient care. But they used psychiatric outpatient care to a lesser extent than a comparison group.
This may be people who have felt excluded from society since early childhood and who in adulthood do not count on getting any real support or help, so they avoid dealing with healthcare, says André Tärnhäll.
