Girls in Detention Facilities Suffer Higher Rates of Depression, Other Mental Disorders

European researchers have discovered significantly higher-than-average rates of depression and other mental health disorders among adolescent girls who are incarcerated in juvenile detention centers.

Personnel from Oxford University in the United Kingdom and Sweden's Karolinska Institutet analyzed data that had been collected during 25 separate studies involving 16,750 teens and adolescents who were confined in detention facilities around the world.

According to a Sept. 3, 2008 article on the PhysOrg website, both boys and girls who were locked up were found to be at greater risk for mental problems:

By putting all this data together, we can say with some confidence that the adequate provision of psychiatric care for adolescents in detention should be a key priority for prison services worldwide,' says Dr Seena Fazel of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford.

For the first time, the researchers have shown adolescent girls in detention are at particular risk of depression. 29% of girls aged 10-19 were diagnosed with major depression, considerably higher than the 12% of adult women in prison reported to suffer from depression and four to five times higher than in the general youth population. 10.6% of boys suffer from major depression.

Cases of psychosis in boys and girls - severe mental illness involving loss of connection with reality - are also much more common in young offender institutions than would be expected, with rates around ten times higher than in the general population.

Dr. Seena Fazel, one of the leaders of the Oxford/Karolinska study, said in a release that the team's findings indicate changes are needed in the manner in which young detainees are screened and evaluated.

"As well as assessing suicide risk and substance abuse, prisons should consider specific screening for mood disorders especially in girls," Fazel said. "Justice systems for juveniles offer the opportunity to pick up mental disorders and make a significant impact on public health. This is a chance to catch many vulnerable people who otherwise fall through the cracks."

The study was published in the September 2008 edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.