Excited Delirium - No It’s Not a Drug
NPR.org recently ran a story from All Things Considered on Excited Delirium. Yeah, I asked the same thing - what the heck is that?
According to the story, there is a condition that medical examiners are calling Excited Delirium, and it causes some people in police custody to die suddenly.
Okay, I’m wondering if your reaction to that was the same as mine. I had to read that twice because I totally thought I missed something, but I didn’t.
Apparently this “condition” has signs and symptoms too - overweight, overly upset, violent, incoherent, and few other things. So, are you convinced that this is a real condition yet? Me either. I really don’t want to think that the today’s police are more hateful and violent, but using Excited Delirium as a reason for the increase in the number of deaths of people in police custody is a little far-fetched! I’m just not sure I can buy into that! It sounds completely ridiculous!
The article from NPR.org notes a statement from Eric Balaban of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“I know of no reputable medical organization — certainly not the AMA [American Medical Association] or the APA [American Psychological Association] — that recognizes excited delirium as a medical or mental-health condition.”
I’m with Balaban on this; I will be extremely surprised if Excited Delirium is ever announced as a real and proven condition.
Just in case you want to read more about Excited Delirium, here are some interesting links.
ZARC INTERNATIONAL INC
CBS News
PoliceOne.com
Kingstonbasehospital.ca
February 27th, 2007 at 6:48 am
What?! What is this trend of putting a name to everything coming and going? Seems as though, over the past few years, everything is turned into a “syndrome” of some sort. As a mental health professional, I’m finding these things harder and harder to swallow.