PMID- 20813221
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20110126
LR  - 20100903
IS  - 0013-7006 (Print)
IS  - 0013-7006 (Linking)
VI  - 36
IP  - 3 Suppl
DP  - 2010
TI  - [Dangerous states and mental health disorders: perceptions and reality].
PG  - 21-5
LID - 10.1016/S0013-7006(10)70014-2 [doi]
AB  - Image of Madness was always strongly linked with the notion of "dangerousness", 
      provoking fear and social exclusion, despite the evolution of psychiatric 
      practices and organisation, and the emphasis on user's rights respect. 
      Mediatization and politicization of this issue through news item combining crime 
      and mental illness, reinforce and spread out this perception. This paper presents 
      a review of the litterature on social perceptions associating "dangerousness", 
      "Insanity" and "mental illness", available data about the link between "dangerous 
      states" and "psychiatric disorders", as well as the notion of "dangerousness" and 
      the assessment of "dangerous state" of people suffering or not from psychiatric 
      disorders. MAPPING OF SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS: The French Survey "Mental Health in 
      General Population: Images and Realities (MHGP)" was carried out between 1999 and 
      2003, on a representative sample of 36.000 individuals over 18 years old. It aims 
      at describing the social representations of the population about 
      "insanity/insane" and "mental illness/mentally ill". The results show that about 
      75% of the people interviewed link "insanity" or "mental illness" with "criminal 
      or violent acts". Young people and those with a high level of education more 
      frequently categorize violent and dangerous behaviours in the field of Mental 
      illness rather than in that of madness. CORRELATION BETWEEN DANGEROUS STATE AND 
      PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS: in the scientific literature, all experts reject the 
      hypothesis of a direct link between violence and mental disorder. Besides, 2 
      tendencies appear in their conclusions: on one hand, some studies establish a 
      significative link between violence and severe mental illness, compared with the 
      general population. On the other hand, results show that 87 to 97% of des 
      aggressors are not mentally ills. Therefore, the absence of scientific consensus 
      feeds the confusion and reinforce the link of causality between psychiatric 
      disorders and violence. OFFICIAL FIGURES BY THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE: according to 
      the French Ministry of Justice, there is a lack of significative data in general 
      population, that would allow the accurate evaluation of the proportion of authors 
      of crimes and offences presenting a "dangerous state", either of criminological 
      order or related to a psychiatric disorder. FROM "DANGEROUSNESS" TO "DANGEROUS 
      STATE": the vagueness of the notion of "dangerousness" aggravates the confusion 
      and reinforce the negative social representations attached to subjects labelled 
      as "mentally ills". A way to alleviate this stigmatisation would be to stop using 
      the word "dangerous", and rather use those of "dangerous states". Assessment of 
      dangerous states is complex and needs to take into account several heterogeneous 
      factors (circumstances of acting, social and family environment...). Besides, it 
      is not a linear process for a given individual. Those risk factors of "dangerous 
      state" lead to the construction of evaluation or prediction scales, which limits 
      lay in the biaises of over or under predictive value. The overestimation of 
      dangerousness is harmful, not only to individuals wrongly considered as 
      "dangerous", but also to the society which, driven by safety concerns, agrees on 
      the implementation of inaccurate measures. A FEW TRACKS FOR REMEDIATION: the 
      representations linking "mental illness" and "dangerousness" are the major 
      vectors of stigma, and deeply anchored in the collective popular imagination. 
      They are shared by all population categories, with no distinction of age, gender, 
      professional status or level of education. To overcome those prejudices, one has 
      to carefully study their basis, their criteria, document them with statistical 
      data, look for consistency and scientific rigour, in the terminology as well as 
      in the methodology. Moreover, one has to encourage exchanges about this topic, 
      between users, relatives, carers, local elected, politicians, media and health 
      professional.
CI  - Copyright 2010 L'Encephale. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights 
      reserved.
FAU - Tassone-Monchicourt, C
AU  - Tassone-Monchicourt C
AD  - Centre collaborateur OMS (Lille, France), EPSM Lille Metropole.
FAU - Daumerie, N
AU  - Daumerie N
FAU - Caria, A
AU  - Caria A
FAU - Benradia, I
AU  - Benradia I
FAU - Roelandt, J-L
AU  - Roelandt JL
LA  - fre
PT  - English Abstract
PT  - Journal Article
TT  - Etats dangereux et troubles psychiques : images et realites.
PL  - France
TA  - Encephale
JT  - L'Encephale
JID - 7505643
SB  - IM
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Aged
MH  - Crime/psychology
MH  - *Dangerous Behavior
MH  - Educational Status
MH  - Fear
MH  - Female
MH  - France
MH  - Health Surveys
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Mental Disorders/diagnosis/*psychology
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - *Public Opinion
MH  - *Reality Testing
MH  - Social Desirability
MH  - *Social Stigma
MH  - Violence/psychology
MH  - World Health Organization
MH  - Young Adult
EDAT- 2010/09/04 06:00
MHDA- 2011/01/28 06:00
CRDT- 2010/09/04 06:00
PHST- 2010/09/04 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2010/09/04 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2011/01/28 06:00 [medline]
AID - S0013-7006(10)70014-2 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/S0013-7006(10)70014-2 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Encephale. 2010;36(3 Suppl):21-5. doi: 10.1016/S0013-7006(10)70014-2.