Clinical practices involving the use of psychotropic drugs in the prison context: an integrative review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5712/rbmfc21(48)4933Keywords:
Prisons, Psychotropic drugs, Mental health assistanceAbstract
Introduction: The prison population is considered a target audience for the medicalization process. Objective: To conduct a systematic bibliographic survey of the literature on clinical practices involving psychotropic drugs applied to this target audience. Methods: Integrative literature review based on the application of the descriptors “prisons,” “psychotropic drugs,” and “mental health care,” both in Brazilian Portuguese and English languages, to the Scopus, Science Direct, NCBI (via PubMed), and Google Scholar databases, considering as the starting point the research question “What are the strategies used in the context of the prison system regarding clinical practices involving the use of psychotropic drugs?”. Results: A total of 18 articles were selected, from which it can be inferred that the reformulation of prison health policies should include harm reduction programs, increased access to mental health services, strengthening of support networks inside and outside prisons, and compliance with the social determinants of psychotropic drug use. Conclusions: The results of this study can support educators, health professionals, managers, and policymakers to develop more assertive, directive, effective, and safe strategies for the health care of this population.
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