Are state Medicaid policies sentencing people with mental illnesses to prison?
Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - 19:30
in Psychology & Sociology
A link between Medicaid policies on antipsychotic drugs and incarceration rates for schizophrenic individuals has been uncovered by a new study. Researchers found that states requiring prior authorization for atypical antipsychotics had less serious mental illness overall but higher shares of inmates with psychotic symptoms than the national average. The study concluded that prior authorization of atypical antipsychotics was associated with a 22 percent increase in the likelihood of imprisonment, compared with the likelihood in a state without such a requirement.