Psychiatric Illness facts
While investigating facts about Psychiatric Illness, I found out little known, but curios details like:
About the Rosenhan experiment, in which a Stanford psychologist and his associates faked hallucinations in order to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals. They then acted normally. All were forced to admit to having a mental illness and agree to take antipsychotic drugs in order to be released.
The Rosenhan Experiment, a study that showed that many doctors in psychiatric hospitals cannot actually distinguish people with actual mental illness from those faking it.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 21 of the best facts about Psychiatric Illness I managed to collect.
-
Beginning in the 1940s through the 1960s, the Quebec government collaborated with the Catholic Church to falsely certify 20,000 "orphaned" children as mentally ill and confine them to psychiatric institutions. The orphans were then subjected to medical experimentation and sexual abuse.
-
According to the American Psychiatric Association, "the vast majority of people who are violent do not suffer from mental illnesses."
-
In the Soviet Union political dissidents were declared mentally ill and sent to psychiatric hospitals to be silenced.
-
You're more likely to be assaulted by a normal person than a "crazy" person. “Research has shown that the vast majority of people who are violent do not suffer from mental illnesses (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).”
-
During the second fight between Lennox Lewis and Oliver McCall (1997), McCall stopped fighting in the 4th and 5th rounds and broke down in tears. The fight was stopped, McCall was "deemed mentally ill," and he spent a while in a Virginia psychiatric ward.
-
Being gay used to listed by the American Psychiatric Association as a mental illness.
-
The Canadian government paid $2.75 per day to care for psychiatric patients, but only $1.25 to care for orphans, resulting in over 20,000 orphaned children falsely diagnosed with psychiatric illness in Quebec
-
His theories on the diagnosis of mental illnesses underpins the modern diagnostic systems, especially the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-IV and the World Health Organization's ICD system.
-
Assortative (selective) mating is widespread among people with mental disorders, in order to compensate for the severely reduced possibility of mating with people not affected by psychiatric illness.
What is true about psychiatric illness?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness
While Belgian doctors legally kill 2,000+ patients a year, including many with depression, the euthanasia law is controversial because "balancing the finality of euthanasia with the often treatable and sometimes fleeting nature of many psychiatric illnesses is extraordinarily difficult." - source
The American Psychiatric Association classified Homosexuality a mental illness until 1974; it was deemed not to be a mental illness by a vote of APA members who feared of political uproar. The change was political, and wasn't based on any science. - source
Déjà vu experiences may be an indicator of neurological or psychiatric illness.
The main psychiatric treatment facility for mentally ill prisoners in Texas is called the Jester IV Unit - source
The Duplessis Orphans; 20,000 orphaned children who were wrongly certified as mentally ill by Quebec and the catholic church in the 50s because the Canadian government paid $1.25 a day for orphans, but $2.75 a day for psychiatric patients.
Depression is one of the most treatable psychiatric illnesses. 80-90% percent of people with depression respond positively to treatment.
A study of mental illness in past US Presidents between 1776 and 1974 reveals that 18 or 49% of Presidents met criteria suggesting psychiatric disorders
New Hampshire is the only state where mentally ill people who have been civilly committed to the state psychiatric hospital can be transferred to the State Prison, even if they haven’t been charged with or convicted of a crime, where they are under control of the state Department of Corrections
