Collaborative Tele-Neuropsychiatry Consultation Services for Patients in Central Prisons

Tele-medicine helps to provide clinical care comparable to in-person treatment in various clinical settings. It is a novel system of healthcare delivery in both low-resource settings and sites where adequate medical care continues to pose greatest challenge like in prison's in India and worldwide.

To study the sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients from Central Prisons, having received collaborative Tele-Neuropsychiatric Care.

Psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery specialists provided tele-neuropsychiatry consultation through Specialist-Doctor-Patient model as part of the state-run program for the two central prisons from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2016. A retrospective file review was done of the tele-neuropsychiatry case records at Tele-Medicine Centre, Located at Tertiary Neuro Psychiatric centre of South India.

A total of 53 patients were provided tele-neuropsychiatric consultation over 2-year period. Of these, 48 (90.6%) were male and 34 (64.1%) were aged more than 30 years. In total, 20.7% of them had severe mental illness, i.e., schizophrenia and mood disorders, 20.7% with substance use disorder (alcohol and cannabis), 17% had anxiety disorders while 17% with seizure disorder. Nearly 81.1% of patients (inmates) were advised pharmacotherapy while 18.9% were suggested further evaluation of illness and inpatient care at the higher center.

The collaborative care was successful in delivering psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery consultation with a Specialist-Doctor-Patient model to prison inmates.