knowledge -WSS

knowledge

author：entertainment 2025-09-06 03:30:56 - browse：35

The term “excited delirium” has been used for years by law enforcement and other first responders, including health care workers, to describe people who exhibit behavior that is considered “out of control.” This diagnosis has been applied again and again, even posthumously, as a justification for extreme, and sometimes deadly, interventions by law enforcement. It came up most recently in the trials of two police officers accused of causing the death of Elijah McClain, a Colorado man; both officers were acquitted this week.

But excited delirium is not an evidence-based medical diagnosis. The American College of Emergency Physicians recently withdrew a 2009 white paper endorsing the concept, and California has banned it as a cause of death. Other states may follow suit.

On this week’s episode, we are joined by Utsha G. Khatri, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and population health and policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and emergency physician Brooks Walsh, who was involved with the campaign to get ACEP to withdraw the 2009 white paper. Khatri and Walsh speak about why the “excited delirium” label is both unnecessary and dangerous.

“We recognize that some patients are confused. They’re not thinking clearly they might have risk for becoming violent either toward themselves or towards other staff,” Khatri said. “It is our job not just to keep them and everyone else safe, but also to most importantly find out what is causing them to act in this way.”

You can read Khatri’s First Opinion essay on the end of “excited delirium” here.

Be sure to sign up for the weekly “First Opinion Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Previous article： Trump demands the U.S. pay no more for drugs than other countries … again
Next article： 'Ancient DNA,' 23andMe reveal African American ancestries

WSS

ER docs worry over extreme heat as a 'mass casualty event'

The drug industry sees a key ally in the Senate prevail

TytoCare raises $49 million to build out AI

What Henrietta Lacks settlement says about racism in medicine

Impact of Dobbs ruling felt at reproductive medicine meeting

STAT Readout Newsletter: Today's biggest biotech updates

focus

knowledge

entertainment

Continuity nursing helped my family in our darkest PICU moments

Trump drops motion seeking removal of DA probing efforts to overturn 2020 election in Georgia

Peter Hotez and the public health issue of online harassment

Why health workers in Gaza are injured or die at high rates

United colonoscopy coverage change 'may cost lives,' doctors say

Senate committee scrutinizes Medicare Advantage brokers

Bright Health sells Medicare Advantage business to Molina

Hospital price transparency does save money, advocate argues

BioMarin wins approval for gene therapy to treat hemophilia A

What the cancer research community can learn from the Covid response

hotspot

HHS leader on health, climate change and biopharma emissions

STAT Summit: Biotech founders on deal

HHS leader on health, climate change and biopharma emissions

Studies point to risks of excluding people with obesity from drug trials

Studies point to risks of excluding people with obesity from drug trials

ProMED, early warning system on disease outbreaks, in peril

entertainment

focus

focus

focus