title: Treatment of psychosis in prisons and violent recidivism.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Violence among released prisoners with psychosis is an important public health problem. It is unclear whether treatment in prison can influence criminal behaviour subsequent to release.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether treatment in prison can delay time to reoffending.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our sample consisted of 1717 adult prisoners in England and Wales convicted of a serious violent or sexual offence. We used Cox regression to investigate the effects of treatment received in prison on associations between mental illness and time to first reconviction following release.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prisoners with current symptoms of schizophrenia reoffended quicker following release. Nevertheless, treatment with medication significantly delayed time to violence (18% reduction). Treatment for substance dependence delayed violent and non-violent reoffending among prisoners with drug-induced psychosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Identifying prisoners with psychosis and administering treatment in prison have important protective effects against reoffending. Repeated screening with improved accuracy in identification is necessary to prevent cases being missed.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  None.
  © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
authors.affiliation: , PhD, , PhD, , MD, Violence Prevention Research Unit, Queen Mary University, London, UK.
authors.forename: Artemis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Igoumenou
authors.affiliation: , PhD, , PhD, , MD, Violence Prevention Research Unit, Queen Mary University, London, UK.
authors.forename: Constantinos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kallis
authors.affiliation: , PhD, , PhD, , MD, Violence Prevention Research Unit, Queen Mary University, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Coid