DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN MAD AND BAD: FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY SERVICES MAY BE THE NEED OF THE HOUR

Abstract

Practising psychiatry has always been cha-llenging due to various reasons. Stigma related to this field remains on top of the list. Identifying and managing the harm or risk towards self and others differentiates the mandate of a psychiatrist from physician. Availability of proper risk asse-ssment tools, team to manage these risks and supervision of experts like forensic psychiatrists have made things easier in developed countries. Proper forensic psychiatry services are at a very basic level in our part of the world, psychiatrists are trying to cope up with this challenge despite limited resources.

History of relationship of mental health with risky behaviours may be traced back around 180 AD where it was the responsibility of the family members of the patients to restrain them and if they could not do so and patient could pose harm to anybody then they were held culpable for that act.In ancient south Asia the laws gave special consideration to retarded persons and children younger than 15 years. Islamic law also states that murder committed bya mentally ill person is inv-oluntary homicide, subject only to compensation for the loss. In classic era Greece, the legal code of Draco (who gives us our adjective for harshness of codes, “draconian”) distinguished murder from involuntary homicide.