Cite as: 509 U. S. 312 (1993)
Souter, J., dissenting
273 (1985). Another study, this one national in scope, found that 38% of the residents of institutions for the mentally retarded receive psychotropic drugs. See Hill, Balow, & Bruininks, A National Study of Prescribed Drugs in Institutions and Community Residential Facilities for Mentally Retarded People, 21 Psychopharmacology Bull. 279, 283 (1985). "Surveys conducted within institutions [for the mentally retarded] have generally shown prevalences in the range of 30% to 50% of residents receiving psychotropic drugs at any given time." Aman & Singh, Pharmacological Intervention, in Handbook of Mental Retardation 347, 348 (J. Matson & J. Mulick eds., 2d ed. 1991) (hereinafter Handbook of Mental Retardation).
Psychotropic drugs, according to the available material, are not only used to treat the institutionalized retarded, but are often misused. Indeed, the findings of fact by a United States District Court in North Carolina, another State nearby Kentucky, show that in three hospitals, 73% of persons committed as mentally retarded were receiving antipsychotic drugs. Less than half of these individuals had been diagnosed as mentally ill as well as mentally retarded following their commitment on the latter ground. See Thomas S. v. Flaherty, 699 F. Supp. 1178, 1187 (WDNC 1988), aff'd, 902 F. 2d 250 (CA4), cert. denied, 498 U. S. 951-952 (1990). The District Court found that the institutionalized retarded plaintiffs "have been seriously endangered and injured by the inappropriate use of antipsychotic drugs." Flaherty, supra, at 1186. See also Halderman v. Pennhurst State School Hospital, 446 F. Supp. 1295, 1307-1308 (ED Pa. 1977) (discussing evidence that 51% of the residents of a state institution for the mentally retarded received psychotropic drugs though less than one-third of those who received the drugs were monitored to determine the effectiveness of the treatment), aff'd, 612 F. 2d 84 (CA3 1979), rev'd on other grounds, 451 U. S. 1 (1981); Bates, Smeltzer, & Arnoczky, Appropriate and Inappropriate Use of Psychotherapeutic
343
Page: Index Previous 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007