Mental Alert
Published:Sunday | January 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Nearly a million adult Jamaicans suffer from personality disorders
High crime rate linked to mental illnesses
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Professor Fredrick Hickling and clinical psychologist Vanessa Paisley have concluded that personality disorder is prevalent in Jamaica.
Their finding is contained in a scientific paper prepared for presentation at the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture in Seattle, Washington, in June. The paper is titled 'Population Prevalence of Personality Disorder in Jamaica'.
something is wrong
According to Professor Hickling, a person would be characterised as having a personality disorder if he or she is showing signs of a combination of the following factors: power-management struggles, psychosexual dysfunction, and dependency issues.
Data from the four-stage, stratified random-sampling method, suggest that the rate of personality disorder - approximately 40 per cent - in the Jamaican population is markedly higher than the internationally identified rate of six-15 per cent. "We have to recognise that something is wrong and not brush things under the carpet," said Paisley.
The scientific sampling was carried out by Don Anderson & Associates on a representative population sample of 1,506 Jamaicans age 18 to 64 years. Extrapolation of the data reveals that nearly one million persons in Jamaica suffer from personality disorders.
Hickling and Paisley believe the findings could explain the high risk of behavioural dysfunction in the Jamaican population.
"Extrapolating these findings to our society, there is no wonder about the high rates of murder and violence, rape, and other sexual atrocities, and crimes such as theft and praedial larceny that are crippling our society," the academics noted in a joint letter to The Gleaner published earlier this month.
According to Hickling, if the findings don't influence public policy, "then we are doomed to repeating the same mistakes of the last 100 years or since Independence".
He is convinced that many of the crime strategies employed by the security forces have failed because this scientific aspect of the crime problem has gone unaddressed. "Introspection and legislation will not solve this problem. We will continue to fail," Hickling said.
Paisley agrees. "We have a failure in our mental-health provision. It is hindering our ability to move forward.
"Policies should be geared towards the training of practi-tioners
"Proper screening methods should be implemented in mental health treatment facilities, including screening of persons in substance-abuse facilities," she added.
destigmatisation
Paisley also argued that public-education programmes utilising all forms of media should be used to enlighten the public about the various mental-health issues that are prevalent in the society and the treatment options that are available.
"Campaigns should also push to further promote the destig-matisation of mental illness in Jamaica," Paisley said.
Hickling pointed to the Cuban and Singaporean examples. "Cuba has implemented behaviour-modification techniques. Many of them are said to be draconian. People are critical of the Cuban model, but it is effective.
In Singapore, if you spit on the street, you are locked up and put into a behaviour-modification programme."
However, in Jamaica, "the crime plans we have catch a small number of people and many of them get away," said Hickling.
The professor believes behaviour-modification programmes, crime plans, and legislative issues need to go hand-in-hand if Jamaica is to tame the crime monster. "The severity of treatment and legislative programme needs to be dependent upon the severity of the problem and the levels of the people who are manifesting the problems," he said.
Hickling and Paisley's findings have already attracted critics who have sought to discredit the findings. But Hickling has some choice words for his detractors: "Of course they would disagree because they know nothing about it. If you throw stone in a hog pen, the first one who squeals is the one who gets hit. The people fighting against it are not clinicians; they haven't done the work.
"In this whole business of mental illness, it is the one who it lick is the one who squeals," said Hickling.
Treatment
Hickling said personality disorder cannot be treated with medication, but treatment cannot be fully explored until the country accepts that something is wrong.
"There are two ways to stop it (personality disorder): by preventing young people from developing it, and older people from getting worse with the use of behaviour-modification psychotherapy."
Severity Ratings
Mild Personality Disorder
The person knows something is wrong with his or her behaviour and usually seeks help.
Moderate Personality Disorder
This is when you can look at someone and say there is something wrong with his or her behaviour. Excessive drinkers, smokers and eaters, etc, usually fall within this category. But they are personally unaware of the fact that they have a problem.
Severe Personality Disorder
This category is much easier to spot. Persons who have continuous run-ins with authority and authority structures fall within this group.
Some symptoms
Person consistently has power-management problems
Psychosexual problems (multiple sexual partners, sexual dysfunction, abnormal sexual practices, etc)
Dependency problems.