Quality of life in forensic psychiatry: an unreclaimed territory?

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of the quality of life concept in forensic psychiatry and the aim is to find out whether quality of life is regarded as an important outcome measure in this subspecialty of psychiatry. To this end, a brief description is given of how the quality of life-concept is dealt with in general psychiatry and what the status of the 'quality of life' concept is in the forensic psychiatric field. One of the major conclusions is that the operationalization and measurement of quality of life in forensic psychiatry is still in its infancy: there are only a couple of publications pertaining to theoretical and/or empirical issues of quality of life for mentally disordered offenders. Therefore, much can be gained from the experience and knowledge in general psychiatry and medicine.