東本 愛香

Abstract BackgroundsThe treatment of mentally disordered offenders is an issue in forensic mental health. In most countries, police officers working in the community are the first to deal with patients at risk of harming themselves or others. However, their perceptions and opinions regarding forensic mental health have not been adequately investigated in Japan.MethodsWe conducted a national survey to gather police officers' views regarding legislation on mentally disordered people and inter-organizational collaboration.ResultsA total of 241 police officers participated in this study. Many participants were aware of the mental health care scheme in their daily work. Contrastingly, many participants complained about the public health center and psychiatrists. They seem to have emerged partially from the differences in each organization's structure, lack of resources, and communication gaps. Many participants felt a lack of opportunity to learn about psychiatry.ConclusionBetter collaborative care for mentally disordered people requires mutual relationships among the police, public health centers, and psychiatrists with a deeper understanding of community mental health.

AIM: To evaluate the effect of educational intervention on individuals' knowledge of and attitudes toward forensic mental health. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire regarding attitudes toward various ideas about forensic mental health. The respondents attended a 1-h seminar regarding forensic mental health after answering the questionnaire. On completion of the seminar, the respondents answered another questionnaire containing many of the same questions as contained in the pre-seminar questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 86 individuals attended the seminar, and 78 responded to the questionnaire. Only 13 (18.8%) participants were supportive of the concept of criminal responsibility initially, and there was a statistically significant increase in those who became more supportive after the seminar, with 22 (33%) being supportive after the seminar (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, P < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that participants who were skeptical about forensic mental systems and those with fewer opportunities to see media reports regarding psychiatry were likely to become supportive of criminal responsibility after the intervention. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that public attitudes toward criminal responsibility and mental health can be influenced via educational interventions.

AIM: To clarify the differences in views on forensic mental health (FMH) systems between the United Kingdom and Japan. METHODS: We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with six leading forensic psychiatrists. Based on a discussion by the research team, we created an interview form. After we finished conducting all the interviews, we qualitatively analyzed their content. RESULTS: In the United Kingdom the core domain of FMH was risk assessment and management; however, in Japan, the core domain of FMH was psychiatric testimony. In the United Kingdom, forensic psychiatrists were responsible for ensuring public safety, and psychopathy was identified as a disease but deemed as not suitable for medical treatment. On the other hand, in Japan, psychopathy was not considered a mental illness. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, there are considerable differences between the United Kingdom and Japan with regard to the concepts of FMH. Some ideas taken from both cultures for better FMH practice were suggested.

Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS; Conrod & Woicik, 2002) measures four risk personality dimensions related to substance use; anxiety sensitivity (AS), hopelessness (H), sensation seeking (55). impulsivity (IMP). The aim of this study is to develop the Japanese version of Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS-J) and to probe the reliability and validity of this scale to the Japanese context. This study consists of the test of the factor analysis (Study I; N = 462), the reliability (Study 2: N = 64), and the validity (Study 3; N = 182). Our findings are as below; Study I showed the conformed factorial structure of SURPS-J and Study 2 revealed the good test-retest reliability. Additionally, Study 3 demonstrated the adequate validity of SURPS-J and its sensitivity in identifying risky drinking motivations and lifetime tobacco and alcohol use. Results showed that high H individuals are likely to experience smoking under the personal and collective situations, while high SS and IMP individuals are prone to drink alcohol under the collective situation. Additionally, high AS individuals are prone to drink by virtue of negative reinforcement motives and high SS and IMP drink by reason of all drinking reinforcement motives. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The prevention and treatment of substance use for youth are important issues in Japan. Substance use have significant risks of adverse psychological, social and physical health consequences. Personality factors in order to understand individual differences for substance use and misuse particularly were the much promise, and several personality factors have been demonstrated to be associated with risk for substance use. Conrod and Woicik (2002) developed Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) that measures four substance use risk personalities: anxiety sensitivity, hopelessness, sensation-seeking, impulsivity being closely relevant to substance use/misuse and abuse. There are only a few studies focusing the relationship between personality factors and substance use among Japanese adolescents. Thus, this paper aimed to review the previous studies on these issues, and introduce studies regarding SURPS including our studies.