Ptsd Women in Prison

In the article Posttraumatic stress disorder in incarcerated women: A call for evidence-based treatment, there is a study done on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in different women in prisons and jails. The article discusses the treatment of PTSD in incarcerated women. The criminal justice system is known as a safety net for a part of America's most vulnerable women (CITE). In the article, the examiners wanted to observe how common PTSD is in incarcerated women.

The hypotheses seen in the article was the ability to study women in prison and see if there was a higher prevalence of physical and mental health issues, specifically PTSD. Trauma is a big gateway to prison for many female survivors of any kind (CITE). In life, people go through many hard situations that shape who they are, and for some people these situations are more life threatening. Women in prison sometimes can be seen to be more abused, and experience trauma than others, and this can sometimes cause women to run away, but continue to be harassed and abused on the streets.

There are situations after running away that may cause these women to get into drugs or alcohol and suffer the consequences. The most common reason is most likely trying to escape the constant thoughts running through a persons head. Trauma can cause many problems for an individual, possibly affecting the way they function for the rest of their life.

In incarcerated women there is a high prevalence of situations that could lead to PTSD (cite). Too many it is no surprise that incarcerated women have higher rates of PTSD than nonincarcerated women. In the article, it is written that 10.4% of nonincarcerated women had been diagnosed with PTSD and incarcerated women were approximately 17% to 48%, which also has a graph along with it so show the differences (CITE). Through the next paragraph of the article discusses the variety of comorbid physical health conditions that PTSD has been linked to, which includes neurological, vascular, gastrointestinal, metabolic/autoimmune, and bone and joint conditions (cite). These can be very difficult situations for women because it can cause severe pain for these women, physically and mentally.

The method of the study was using questionnaires with volunteers to assess physical and mental health of incarcerated women in a maximum security prison. The study was conducted in the United States with approval from Institutional Review Boards, and was nonprobability, as well as completely anonymous(CITE). Women in the prison were able to volunteer and fill out the questionnaire and place it into an envelope where it was no tampered with.

One of the instruments used was a survey for past physical and mental health problems (Paracite). The survey was most likely for the examiners to make sure that if the women did have a past of mental or physical health problems it would not affect the test. All women that participated also needed to complete a posttraumatic stress disorder scale (PTSD), which would allow the examiners to see the severity of PTSD in the women (CITE).

Cite this page