Mental health care for female adolescents in detention centres: governance dilemmas and medicalization

ABSTRACT

The article analyzes the utilization of psychoactive drugs by young female offenders admitted to detention centres (USEs – Socio-Educational Unities) in Brazil. The article also describes how national public agencies’ guidelines and the quality of coordinated action is used by subnational instances regarding mental health care. This article results from three case studies in Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. The central hypothesis of the research is that Youth Detention Center´s governance regime could explain psychiatric medicalization preferences. The cross-sectional data resulted from medical records and interviews with key informants. It shows that vertical governance observed in Rio Grande do Sul is directly associated with high prevalence of diagnosis of mental health disorder and psychoactive drugs utilization by young offenders who are deprived of freedom. In the model of vertical governance promoted in Rio de Janeiro, the adoption of a clinical protocol in which the psychiatrist is the last professional in the line of care resulted in a residual use of psychiatric medication. Despite the articulation with primary care, the use of psychiatric medication observed in Minas Gerais was not residual because it reached 45% of the adolescents in custody. These findings indicate that sanctions of imprisonment for illegal acts may produce a set of medicalization decisions that threaten the rights of adolescents in detention centres in the field of health. Paradoxically, national mental health policies for young offenders proposes a more cautious approach in relation to psychiatric medication. National policies also sustains that medication should include an ongoing assessment of risks and benefits. The careful administration of psychopharmacological intervention can avoid excessive prescription and underestimation of adverse effects.

KEYWORDS
Institutionalized adolescent; Mental health; Psychotropic drugs; Medicalization