Clinical and Eeg Studies of Prisoners Charged with Murder

Abstract

For some years EEG recordings have been carried out at the Maudsley Hospital on male persons charged with murder and in custody while awaiting trial. These recordings have been undertaken at the request of the prison authorities with the consent of the defence and irrespective of whether or not there was a recognized clinical indication for such a procedure. During the period 1964 to 1969 150 such prisoners were examined, only 97 of whom were subsequently brought to trial on a charge of murder, with the outcome as given in Table I. Towards the end of this period EEGs were recorded from 20 volunteer male members of the hospital staff, all within the same age range as the prisoners (mean age 30 years, range 16–70) and none with any previous history of obvious medical or forensic relevance.