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Despite high rates of domestic violence and increased rates of honor killing (HK) over the past decade, there is a paucity of empirical data about how HK affects family members. This study used grounded theory to explore the emotional and social effects of HK on 23 family members of murdered women and found that HK failed to achieve the restoration of honor. Following HK, families subsequently entered a protracted process of grief compounded by negative social interactions, which led to a form of "social death." The road to social death was a painful and continuous social process, which, for many, never abated.

In this study, we aim to increase our understanding of the self-reported sources of distress among people who have experienced first-episode psychosis. Following a systematic literature search, 33 relevant studies containing first-person accounts of first-episode psychosis were identified, which were synthesized using thematic analysis. Two interrelated superordinate themes were identified: intrapersonal distress and interpersonal distress. Participants reported multiple, diverse, and multifaceted sources of distress across both themes. These were substantially different from those routinely recognized and targeted in clinical practice. This review suggests that practitioners who maintain a stance of genuine curiosity about the potential sources of distress for this population will be perceived as more helpful. The findings also highlight the importance of being service user-led when planning and delivering mental health care. Additional clinical and research implications are discussed.

Psychotropic medicines are widely used to treat mental illness; however, people entering prison commonly report that prescribed psychotropic medicines are changed or withdrawn, adding to their distress in difficult times. Drawing on three extracts from a larger qualitative dataset in which patients and doctors were interviewed about psychotropic medication use in English prisons, we combined discursive psychological and Foucauldian discourse analysis techniques to examine how individuals accounted for medication changes. Patients used four discursive strategies to organize descriptions of medication changes: they established entitlement to psychotropic medication, questioned the clinical judgment of prison doctors; highlighted communication problems; and attributed negative health outcomes to medication regime changes. In contrast, we examined an effective defense by a general practitioner, which showed how clinical needs were prioritized over previously held prescriptions when making prescribing decisions. Wider implications for continuity and equivalence of care between prisons and the wider community are discussed., (© The Author(s) 2014.)

While the prevalence of mental illness is higher in prisons than in the community, less is known about comparative rates of psychotropic medicine prescribing. This is the first study in a decade to determine the prevalence and patterns of psychotropic medication prescribing in prisons. It is also the first study to comprehensively adjust for age when making comparisons with the general population. Four East of England prisons, housing a total of 2222 men and 341 women were recruited to the study. On census days, clinical records were used to identify and collect data on all prisoners with current, valid prescriptions for hypnotic, anxiolytic, antipsychotic, antimanic, antidepressant and/or stimulant medication, as listed in chapters 4.1 to 4.4 of the British National Formulary. Data on 280,168 patients were obtained for comparison purposes from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. After adjusting for age, rates of psychotropic prescribing in prison were 5.5 and 5.9 times higher than in community-based men and women, respectively. We also found marked differences in the individual psychotropic drugs prescribed in prison and community settings. Further work is necessary to determine whether psychotropic prescribing patterns in prison reflect an appropriate balance between managing mental illness, physical health risks and medication misuse.