Diagnóstico pericial y diagnóstico asignado por el Instituto de Neurociencias de la Junta de Beneficencia de Guayaquil-Ecuador, a personas declaradas inimputables internadas por orden judicial, durante el periodo 2013-2022

Abstract

Currently, legal processes take into account a person’s mental state at the time of committing a crime to determine their responsibility. In Ecuador, having a mental disorder is a cause of unaccountability. However, despite the increase in these cases, there is no catalog of mental disorders accepted as a cause of unaccountability. In addition, it is concerning that numerous expert diagnoses assigned to people who were declared unaccountable do not match the diagnosis issued by the health facility to which they were referred. This research aimed to determine the concordance between the expert diagnosis and the diagnosis established by the Institute of Neurosciences of the Board of Charity of Guayaquil in people declared unaccountable and interned by court order during the period 2013-2022. A quantitative methodology with a descriptive scope and a non-experimental design was used, with a population of 142 participants. The results showed that most people declared unaccountable are men, between 18 and 34 years old, single, from the coastal region, unemployed and with a low socioeconomic level. Crimes against life and personal integrity were the most common. Finally, it was found that the concordance between the expert diagnosis and the diagnosis assigned by the Institute of Neurosciences was low, reflecting problems in terms of diagnostic reliability. On the other hand, the concordance between the hospital admission diagnosis and the hospital discharge diagnosis was good.