Violence and Mental Illness: How Strong is the Link?

Panel presentation, Association of Health Care Journalists. March, 2008: E. Fuller Torrey, MD, president Treatment Advocacy Center

Courtesy of MIWatch.org

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• mental
• health
• violence
• E.
• Fuller
• Torrey

[bullspeed801]

Before 1955 there were four studies that found that patients discharged from the mental hospitals committed crimes at the same or lower rates than the general population. However eight studies conducted between 1965 and 1979 found that in all eight studies discharged patients were being arrested at rates higher than the general population

Rabkin, J. G “Criminal Behavior of Discharge Mental Patients,” Psychological Bulletin 86 (1979):1-27

Drugs make people more prone to crimes

[arabella346]

@Blindguardian.Wrong. A fraction of murders are committed by the mentally ill. This is because the severely mentally ill are a small fraction of the population. *Among* the severely mentally ill, a still small but disproportionate number will commit violent crimes. On average about 25% of prison inmates have a severe mental illness (i.e., bipolar disorder or schizophrenia) up from < 10% several decades ago. THE VAST MAJORITY people will mental illness pose no threat, whether medicated or not.

[Blindguardian523]

LOL! its estimated that 6% of murders are by the "mentally ill", which means that only a fraction of that is by people who have been labeled "schizophrenic". this guy is full of shit

[jungian9111]

The problem is much deeper than just a continuous dose of medication. Root disabilities lie in the inability to accept ourselves, i.e. the nature within us, and without it there is no reconciliation to wholeness. Nature is deemed evil without the slightest consideration it holds a valuable place in psychic hygiene.

Modern psychotherapy knows that at the bottom of every neurosis, a moral problem of opposites exists. How are we to respect others when were unable to respect ourselves?

[survivorartist]

nothing but b.s. lies and propaganda...e. fuller torrey's specialty.

[pellhell]

OMG. Does he just make this crap up, lol. What a quack.

[jmc15100]

Sadly, lack of insight a.k.a. anosognosia is very real for some people who have a severe mental illness. They suffer needlessly because our current mental health system and treatment laws in many states do not provide the treatment that would help someone to be doing well enough so that they would then be able to take control of their own recovery.

[BFA118]

This guy is pseudoscientist. He utterly fails to produce statistically significant evidence that can be found elsewhere.

Do not trust witch doctors like this guy.

[RxChange]

Thinking people seek to know the facts - not individual beliefs - while "the experts" want the facts to conform to their beliefs. Hence thinkers alter their beliefs to conform to the facts, while "the experts" alter the facts to conform to their beliefs.

This "expert's" attempt to deceive is so blatant that it's actually creepy. His Treatment Advocacy Center generated "facts" cannot be corroborated by any neutral or governmental source yet are routinely reported by the media as gospel truth.