Noted Psychiatrist Available for Interviews on Incident with School- Bus Driver and Consequences of Untreated Severe Mental Illness

1/25/2002

From: Alicia Aebersold of the Treatment Advocacy Center 703-294-6008 or 301-229-5619 (weekends)

News Advisory:

On Jan. 24, Otto Nuss, 63, kidnapped a school bus of children, taking them on a six-hour trip from Pennsylvania to Maryland. Nuss had a loaded rifle on the bus but apparently never overtly threatened the children. According to the Associated Press, "A friend said Nuss had been treated for psychiatric problems and recently went off his medication." Fortunately, none of the students were physically harmed.

An estimated 4.5 million Americans suffer from the severest forms of mental illness, schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness. The National Advisory Mental Health Council estimates that 40 percent of these individuals, 1.8 million people, are not receiving treatment on any given day. Most who refuse treatment do so because they do not believe they are sick, a medical condition known as anosognosia. People with severe mental illnesses who are in treatment are no more dangerous than the general population - but when they are off treatment, they are more dangerous.

"These are treatable illnesses that our society -- through its laws, policies, and apathy -- allows to go untreated," says E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. " Consequences of lack of treatment include homelessness, violence, suicide, and incarceration. Court-ordered treatment is often an appropriate and proven method of helping stabilize a significant number of these individuals who are lost to their illnesses. In this case tragedy was luckily averted. In many other instances, it is not."

WHAT: E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., is available for media interviews

WHO: Dr. Torrey is a research psychiatrist specializing in schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness.

Described in The Washington Post as "The most famous psychiatrist in America," Dr. Torrey is president of the Treatment Advocacy Center (www.psychlaws.org), a national nonprofit organization working to eliminate barriers to treatment of severe mental illnesses, and executive director of the Stanley Foundation Research Programs on Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, which supports more research on schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness than any other private entity.

Dr. Torrey has appeared on national radio and television (such as NPR, 20/20, 60 Minutes, Dateline). He is the author of 20 books and more than 200 lay and professional papers.

WHEN/HOW: For an interview this weekend, call 301-229-5619. Weekdays, call 703-298-6008.