Changes in political or religious beliefs among POWs and hostages have often been attributed to "brainwashing" or "coercive persuasion." The cases reported have usually involved people held involuntarily. Since the publication of DSM-Ill, the authors have noted frequent usage of the term "atypical dissociative disorder" in civil lawsuits by plaintiffs seeking damages from groups or cults they j...

AIMS AND METHOD The aim of the study was to examine the association between the assessment of need by staff and by severely mentally ill patients using the Camberwell Assessment of Need in a semi-rural setting (Maidstone, n=50) and an inner-city area (Camberwell, n=127). Staff and patients were interviewed separately.We specifically examined differences in the total number of needs between Camb...

This study assessed the efficacy of the Family-to-Family Education Program, a structured 12-week program developed by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. A total of 37 family members who participated in the program were evaluated by an independent research team of trained family member assessors at baseline, after completing the program, and six months after program completion. After co...

There is emerging evidence that individuals who are mentally ill are overrepresented in the group of defendants prosecuted under the blasphemy laws of Pakistan. This article discusses the background of blasphemy legislation in Pakistan, and proposes causal interactions between underlying mental illness in the defendant and prosecution for blasphemy. It sketches possible legal safeguards for suc...

Should criminal law principles be applied to life insurance claims made by the beneficiaries of an insured person who commits suicide? Any discussion of the criminal law and the M'Naghten test of criminal responsibility, as sometimes used by the courts and recommended by the authors, obfuscates the resolution of contemporary issues.

Psychiatry shares with other professions certain common characteristics. Sociologically, a profession is defined as an occupation based on a unique theoretical and scientific body of knowledge, whose practitioners have a service orientation, and autonomy in the performance of their work (Hughes, 1965). In addition to these three core characteristics, psychiatry is beginning to experience a tren...

OBJECTIVES We compared characteristics of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adult caregivers (age > or = 18 years) who were caring for an older adult (age > or = 60 years) to those of other ethnic groups. METHODS Participants (N=20,996) were from the 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Caregivers provided regular care or assistance during the past month to a family member...

This paper is based on the observation that some certainties in care and rehabilitation of mentally ill people have not been and are not yet sufficiently guaranteed; furthermore discrimination and inequalities are generated by a certain kind of science and politics. So we conducted a study at a Diagnosis and Care Psychiatric Service (DCPS) located in the South of Italy. We have observed and sta...