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requirement of "continued institutionalization" is outdated
because "medical practice in the latter part of the 20th century
attempts NOT to institutionalize patients". The fact that Robert
was never institutionalized does not, of course, mean that the
issue must automatically be decided in favor of the Government,
but we do not believe that Robert's psychiatric consultations
rise to a level that could properly be categorized as "constant
supervision". Petitioners assert that more Americans are
affected annually by clinical depression than by heart disease or
cancer. We would simply respond by recognizing that many seek
professional help with the expectation (or hope) that their
depression manifestations can be alleviated, just as persons
suffering from other illnesses, many of them quite serious, seek
and obtain periodic medical assistance to alleviate their
conditions. But periodic professional consultation (such as
petitioner's) alone does not, in our judgment, equate with the
constant supervision envisioned by the regulation. And
petitioners have not suggested that Robert suffered from
psychosis or severe psychoneurosis such as would require his
continued, constant supervision.
Petitioners also assert that the remediability of
petitioner's condition was uncertain in 1989, and that the fact
that the condition abated is a tribute to medical science, but
was by no means a certainty in 1989. While this may or may not
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