Prisoners and PTSD
Home ❯ Prevalence in forensic settings

Prevalence in forensic settings

What is prevalence of bipolar disorder in forensic settings?

Prevalence quantifies the proportion of individuals in a population who have a disorder during a specific time period, while incidence refers to the number of new cases that develop in a population during a specific time period. In disorders of short duration, incidence and prevalence rates may be similar, however with disorders of long duration, such as bipolar disorder, there can be variation between the two. Current, or ‘point’ prevalence is the proportion of individuals who have the disorder at a given point in time, ‘period’ prevalence measures the proportion of individuals who have the disorder during a specified period (e.g. 1 year), a ‘lifetime’ prevalence is the proportion of individuals in the population who have ever had the disorder.

What is the evidence regarding prevalence of bipolar disorder in forensic settings?

Moderate to high quality evidence finds the prevalence of bipolar disorder in older prisoners (> 50 years) is around 4.5%, from studies conducted in the USA.

No reviews were identified that assessed rates in other age groups or regions.

October 2021

Image: ©viperagp – stock.adobe.com

Last updated at: 4:36 pm, 21st April 2022
To view documentation related to this topic download the files below
Fact Sheet Technical Commentary
Tags:  Forensic

NeuRA Libraries

Title Colour Legend:
Green - Topic summary is available.
Orange - Topic summary is being compiled.
Red - Topic summary has no current systematic review available.