Psychiatric Disorders among People Referred to a Forensic Psychiatry Service in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among people referred for forensic psychiatric evaluation and to study some of their psycho-demographic and clinical characteristics. Design of the study: The design of the study is a cross-sectional one year survey. Methods and Material: This survey included all subjects referred to the outpatient forensic psychiatric committee at Taif Mental Hospital (OPFPCTMH), the main official psychiatric forensic committee in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during one year (787 subjects). This committee is responsible for the forensic evaluation of all forensic psychiatric referrals in the KSA. They were interviewed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and they were diagnosed according to DSM IV classification. Clinical and demographic data were collected. The relation between crimes, psychiatric diagnosis, and number of clinical and psycho-demographic variables were done. A further analysis between various psychiatric diagnoses, age at committing crime, sex, ethnic distribution, duration and number of previous admission to psychiatric hospitals were also analyzed. Results: The most common offenses committed by people referred to OPFPCTMH were violence, drug, murder or attempted murder, sexual and robbery offense in this order. Most of the offenses were committed by patients with psychosis, personality disorder and substance abuse. All offenses were committed much more by male patients except defalcation and sexual offenses, which were nearly equally committed by males and females. Most offenses were committed by Saudi nationals followed by Yemani, Bangladeshi, Nigerian and Ethiopian nationals. All offenses were committed during the third or fourth decade of life. Conclusions: Mental illness is associated with increased rates of serious acts and violence in the KSA. This observation necessitates special attention from health policy makers to take a step for prevention of such crimes.