Psychosocial and Electroencephalographic Studies of Egyptian Murderers

¹ Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Head of Psychiatric Unit, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
² Lecturer in Psychiatry, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
³ Assistant Professor of Neurology, Neuropsychiatric Department, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

A psycho-social study of 90 Egyptian murderers, 60 from the prison and 30 from the State mental hospital was made. Thirty normal subjects matched from all points to the other cases were selected as a control. The incidence, sex ratio, vocation, marital status, early development, motivation, associated sexual disorders, addiction and rural and urban distribution are discussed. A clinical psychiatric evaluation of the main diagnoses in both prison and mental hospital cases are described. The statistical differences between both groups of murderers and the controls in intelligence, hand aggression test and thematic apperception test are explained.

The EEG was performed on 76 of the studied murderers, 46 from prisons, 30 from mental hospitals and 30 normal subjects acting as a control group. The incidence of EEG abnormality in the prison group was 43.48 per cent and in the mental hospital group 57 per cent. The most important observation was the very high incidence (over 70 per cent) of abnormal EEG among the prisoners whose crime was apparently motiveless or with a slight motive. In our study, psychotics showed a higher proportion of EEG abnormalities (60 per cent) than psychopaths (33 per cent) which is rather different from previous studies. The relationship between nosological states of cases and the type of abnormal EEG, in both the prison and the mental hospital groups is explained and evaluated.

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