Here, I’m providing updates, clarifications, and corrections related to my book, Your Consent Is Not Required. If you have an update you’d like to offer on a particular story, issue, or research in the book, or a clarification to request, or a possible correction to bring to my attention, please contact me or post a comment below. Page numbers are for the 2023 BenBella Hardcover edition.
Updates
Page 29: “This suggests that lifetime prevalence [of mental disorders] for adults has climbed toward 60 or 70 percent or more.” A 2020 study in New Zealand published by JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, claims to have found that 86% of people had developed at least one mental illness by age 45, and 85% of those had developed two mental illnesses.
Page 164: “In 2021, a follow-up OIG report and a separate New York Times investigation found that diagnoses of schizophrenia had been climbing tremendously in LTC facilities.” In 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched an effort to rein in psychiatrists who were doling out diagnoses of schizophrenia to nursing home residents just to legitimize coercively tranquilizing them with antipsychotic drugs.
Clarifications and Corrections
Page 29: “psychiatric diagnosis is an inexact science”: The source for this precise quotation is not the Addington v. Texas case, but a law article describing the findings in the Addington v. Texas case. Edward P. Richards, The Jurisprudence Of Prevention: The Right Of Societal Self-Defense Against Dangerous Persons, 16 Hast Const L Q 320 (1989) https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/articles/hastings/hastings-1_-3.htm
Page 38: “standards for ‘dangerousness’ established by the US Supreme Court”: This should read “established by the US Supreme Court and state higher courts.” Historically, a number of higher court decisions gradually outlined that dangerousness should be understood as imminent, involving physical acts or real physical threats, and so on. However, as this chapter discusses, in practice most state laws, judges, and psychiatrists use relatively broad, loose definitions of dangerousness.
Page 41: “the Maryland-based Treatment Advocacy Center” While many of its board members are identified as based in Maryland, Treatment Advocacy Center’s official address is in Virginia.
Page 64: “…at one point, she nearly died from dehydration….” The dehydration event occurred prior to Louise entering foster care.
Pages 71-73: “in the 1950s… closer to 319,000 state hospital inpatient beds occupied by people diagnosed with mental disorders, or about 187 beds per 100,000 people at that time.” I have published a more methodical and expanded analysis and discussion of the data on psychiatric beds, including some updates and minor corrections, at Mad in America. Click here to view “Busting the Deinstitutionalization Myth: We Actually Have More Beds Than Ever Before.”
Page 73: “about 40 percent of their residents are labeled with ‘serious mental illness.'” About 40 percent of residents in residential care communities under age 65 have been diagnosed with “serious mental illnesses” (SMIs)–the percentage of other residents identified as having SMIs is much lower. However, the total number actually increases substantially when adding in residents of all ages identified as having various mental disorders and/or “behavioral symptoms” for which they were reportedly drugged with psychotropics for behavioral-control purposes. That said, there appear to be overlaps between this data and what in other data is termed “long-term care facilities,” so more rigorous study and analysis are needed. Also see endnote above. Khatutsky G. “Residential Care Communities and Their Residents in 2010: A National Portrait.” DHHS Publication No. 2016-1041. National Center for Health Statistics (2016). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ data/nsrcf/nsrcf_chartbook.pdf
Page 74: “what many on-the-ground studies have shown actually happened in the wake of the international movement to close asylums.” Another useful reference here is Winkler, P., et al. “Deinstitutionalised patients, homelessness and imprisonment: Systematic review.” The British Journal of Psychiatry. (2016). https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.114.161943
Page 81: “unnecessary institutionalization” A current working link for the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program annual reports is here: https://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/hcfac/index.asp
Page 136: “no broad consensus.” The actual reference source is “Resource Document On Involuntary Outpatient Commitment And Related Programs Of Assisted Outpatient Treatment.” American Psychiatric Association. (October 2015.) http://apapsy.ch/Involuntary
Page 178: “the wife orchestrated a ruse with the help of Sampson and basically kidnapped her own husband from the hospital… the couple enjoyed seven more years together at home.” I used creative language here, but to be clear, the process of removing the man was legal and hospital staff allowed it to occur. The couple had five more years together at home before the wife’s death.