The question inevitably follows the carnage at Virginia Tech: Are individuals with severe mental illnesses more dangerous than the general population? Since the 1960s, when the emptying of public mental hospitals went on fast forward, this question has recurred with each publicized psychiatric tragedy. And each time, mental health organizations have replied with an identical mantra: Psychiatric patients are not more dangerous than the general population.This answer may be politically correct, but it is factually incorrect. To be precise, mentally ill individuals who are taking medication to control the symptoms of their illness are not more dangerous. But on any given day, approximately half of severely mentally ill individuals are not taking medication. The evidence is clear that a portion of these individuals are significantly more dangerous. [snip]
Specifically regarding homicides, a 1985 study in Contra Costa County, Calif., found that individuals with severe mental illnesses were responsible for 10% of homicides. Multiple European studies have reported a range from 5% to 18%. Using the most conservative estimate of 5% for the United States, individuals with severe mental illness would have been responsible for 885 of the 16,192 total homicides in 2005. And if this 5% were applied to all homicides in the U.S. between 1966, when deinstitutionalization got underway, and 2005, the total would be 37,969 homicides. Most of these would not have happened if the perpetrators had been receiving treatment.
We desperately need a rethink on this issue before another tragedy happens.
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