title: [Screening for psychiatric disorders among prison inmates].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Prison inmates have high frequencies of psychiatric disorders. Most prisons have little health-personnel resources, and methods to help focus resources towards those with serious health-care needs would be useful. The Global Symptom Index (GSI) of the Symptom Check List-90 (SCL-90) has performed well in other populations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prisoners at Kristiansand County Prison, Norway were asked to participate in the study, and 187 of 206 (91%) consented. All filled in the SCL-90 during the first four days of incarceration, and were examined clinically by a psychiatrist.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinical examination revealed 40 persons with psychiatric disorder. Of these, 37 had a GSI score > or = 1. There were three false negatives and two false positives. Based on various cut-off levels for the GSI, we found a GSI cut-off value at 1.5 to perform best with sensitivity = 0.78, specificity = 0.87, and Number Needed to Diagnose = 1.55.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SCL-90 performs well as a screening instrument for psychiatric disorders among prison inmates.
authors.affiliation: Psykiatrisk Institutt Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Trondheim.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gamman
authors.forename: O M
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Linaker
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires