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Biomedical subjects

S M Manson

Publications and source records attributed to S M Manson.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Oregon's Psychiatric Security Review Board: a comprehension system for managing insanity acquittees.

The insanity defense is a particularly controversial aspect of the interaction between law and mental health. During the past decade, many states have revised or abolished their insanity defenses. Oregon, however, chose in 1974 to retain its existing defense and create a new, unique system for the post-adjudication management of insanity acquitees. Oregon's legislature established the Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB), which is composed of five part-time members drawn from different disciplines, to conduct periodic hearings to determine the placement and supervision of defendants who successfully raise the insanity defense and remain mentally ill and dangerous. The PSRB has received national attention as a promising approach to managing mentally ill offenders. The authors first describe the structure and operation of the Oregon system. Then they summarize the empirical studies they have conducted of the PSRB in action.

Forensic Psychiatry↗
PubMed1984

Insanity defenses: contested or conceded?

The authors examined 316 Oregon criminal cases in which the accused successfully pleaded the insanity defense. Prosecutors agreed to the insanity verdict in more than four out of five cases. In most cases all examining experts diagnosed the defendant as psychotic. The smaller number of defendants who were diagnosed by the state hospital staff as displaying only personality disorders accounted for a disproportionately large percentage of the contested trials. Observing that Oregon's insanity defense system is run by consensus, the authors suggest a reorientation of the insanity defense debate.

Crime↗
PubMed1982

Development and validation of a Vietnamese-language depression rating scale.

The authors developed a depression scale in the Vietnamese language that contains culturally consistent items describing the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of depressed individuals and items describing common clinical characteristics of depressed Vietnamese patients. After pretesting, the preliminary 43-item scale was given to 21 depressed Vietnamese patients and a matched community sample of 44. Fifteen items accounted for 96% of the variance between the two groups and were used as the final form of the Vietnamese Depression Scale. A cutoff of 13 points (of a possible 34) identified 91% of the patients and 96% of the community sample.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Use of the CES-D in an American Indian village.

In this paper, we examine the performance of a pencil-and-paper screening questionnaire on depressive symptoms (the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, or CES-D) in a sample of 120 adult American Indians belonging to a single Northwest Coast tribe. Results of factor analyses suggest that somatic complaints and emotional distress are not well differentiated from each other in this population. CES-D scores (which have shown good sensitivity and specificity for depressive disorders in this sample) also show weak and apparently nonsignificant trends to be elevated in the presence of other psychiatric diagnoses (including alcoholism) or general impairment. However, because of the use of a convenience sample (rather than a probability sample), analyses of associations between study factors--including comorbidity--are liable to produce spurious results due to selection bias (including Berkson bias). On this basis, we suggest that the use of probability samples should assume a high priority in cross-cultural studies. The study of the entire population of interest is another solution to the sampling problem, particularly in small communities.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Commentary: quality of alcohol, drug, and mental health services for American Indian children and adolescents.

American Indian children and adolescents suffer from a high prevalence of alcohol, drug, and mental (ADM) disorders. Unfortunately, the systems of services for these children and youth have never been able to address adequately their mental health needs. Thus, the revolutionary changes now taking place within these service systems, in particular the marked increase in the direct provision of services by Indian tribes and organizations, provides a unique opportunity to address these historical shortcomings. In this paper, we describe our existing knowledge concerning the quality of ADM services for American Indian children and adolescents and their critical sociodemographic, sociocultural, and epidemiologic contexts. We then consider the implications of these studies for improving the quality of care as well as its measurement and monitoring.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Risk factors for suicide among Indian adolescents at a boarding school.

Suicide rates among American Indians, especially adolescents, are higher than those for the general population. This paper summarizes the relevant literature on prevalence of, and risk factors for, suicide among American Indian groups, with a strong emphasis on adolescents. Data concerning risk of suicide for a sample of high school students attending an Indian boarding school are presented. Approximately 23 percent of these students had attempted suicide at some time in the past, and 33 percent reported suicidal ideation within the past month. Students at greatest risk for suicide include those who reported having either family or friends who had attempted suicide and those who reported on standardized psychological measures as having experienced greater depressive symptomatology, greater quantity and frequency of alcohol use, or little family support. In a 1988 survey of community-based programs for Indian adolescents, 194 were identified as carrying out significant suicide prevention activities. Forty-one of those programs were school-based; they emphasized early identification of students' mental health problems and reduction of specific risk factors such as substance abuse.

Adolescent↗