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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excited delirium | 3/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excited_delirium | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:19:36.061055+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Association with racism === In 2003, the NAACP argued that excited delirium is used to explain the deaths of minorities more often than whites, and the American Psychiatric Association also notes that "the term excited delirium is disproportionately applied to Black men in police custody". The American Civil Liberties Union argued in 2007 that the diagnosis served "as a means of white-washing what may be excessive use of force and inappropriate use of control techniques by officers during an arrest." Several academic commentators have noted that medical personnel and law enforcement personnel apply diagnoses of excited delirium in a manner which disproportionately disadvantages African Americans. Excited delirium has also been used to diagnose Indigenous people after violent police encounters. In 1999, in Victoria British Columbia, Canada, Anthany Dawson, a member of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Nation, was beaten and punched repeatedly by the police before dying in an ambulance. Initially, police statements relayed to the public that overdose was his cause of death, though there was no evidence of drug use at the time of the statements’ release. Later, toxicology reports only found a small amount of marijuana from the previous evening before his death. In the media, Dawson was portrayed as having been mentally ill, but he had no medical history of mental illness. Then, he was believed to have a genetic condition that predisposed him to die of excited delirium which was the documented cause of his death. Dawson's mother, however, maintains that "police force and racism" was the sole cause of her son’s death. By presenting these unfounded individual causes for Dawson’s death, police violence cannot be named as the causal factor in his life ending. In addition, commentators have alleged that fallacious diagnoses of excited delirium have been used to cover-up instances of police brutality. Excited delirium’s diagnosis serves to cover the racial injustice of police brutality and structural racism, pinning the blame on the victim. By painting the victims in police reports as menacing, unpredictable, and uncontrollable under the pretence of being mentally ill, or under influence of substances, police aggression is not only excused, it is justified. Rather than enacting empathy and compassion for people in vulnerable situations, the police create a dehumanizing narrative wherein the victims’ death is inevitable, where their life reaches a prescribed end. Police procedures and behaviours, their tendency to escalate force and gross neglect goes unexamined and unquestioned. Ultimately, it removes moral culpability and accountability from the police and leaves the victims’ families and communities without justice nor a proper account of their loved ones’ death. Excited delirium has been described as fundamentally racist by many commentators in the media, including Jon Ronson's BBC podcast Things Fell Apart in 2024. The episode, titled "The Most Mysterious Deaths", describes Wetli's initial coining of the phrase "excited delirium", as well as the later debunking of the phenomenon, and its connection to the murder of George Floyd. Before the term "excited delirium" was rejected by the ACEP in 2023, its supposed risk factors vary including "bizarre behavior generating phone calls to police", "failure to respond to police presence", and "continued struggle despite restraint". It supposedly endows individuals with "superhuman strength" and being "impervious to pain". It is disproportionately diagnosed among young Black men, and has clear undertones of racial bias.
=== Influence of Taser manufacturer === Axon Enterprise, formerly Taser International, provides training for police on recognizing excited delirium and several prominent proponents of the diagnosis are retained by Axon, with diagnosis often based on a test conducted by Deborah Mash, a paid consultant to Axon. A 2017 report by Reuters found that excited delirium had been listed as a factor in autopsy reports, court records or other sources in at least 276 deaths that followed taser use since 2000, with diagnosis often based on a test conducted by Deborah Mash. In one case, within four hours of a man dying after being tasered, Axon had provided model press releases, instructions for gathering evidence of excited delirium, and advised that samples be sent to Mash. Axon has paid thousands of dollars to proponents of the excited delirium diagnosis, including Charles Wetli who first proposed the term, who have repeatedly used "excited delirium" as a defense in liability suits and to shield police officers from criminal liability for deaths in custody. Axon has instigated litigation against some medical examiners who suggested that tasers were a factor in the death of restrained persons. Scholars have speculated that this may have a chilling effect on the reports published by some medical examiners. A survey in 2011 showed that 14% of medical examiners had altered a diagnostic finding "out of fear of litigation by the company". In Canada, the 2007 case of Robert Dziekanski received national attention and placed a spotlight on the use of tasers in police actions and the diagnosis of excited delirium. Police psychologist Mike Webster testified at a British Columbia inquiry into taser deaths that police have been "brainwashed" by Taser International to justify "ridiculously inappropriate" use of the electric weapon. He called excited delirium a "dubious disorder" used by Taser International in its training of police. In a 2008 report, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police argued that excited delirium should not be included in the operational manual for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police without formal approval after consultation with a mental-health-policy advisory body.