Scandal of Asperger's sufferers held in prisons

LONDON, UK:  Up to 60 people are being held in hospital prisons for the criminally insane despite a recognition that they have been misdiagnosed and are not mentally ill. The patients, who were declared to be schizophrenic, are now accepted to have Asperger's syndrome.

            Despite that, they remain incarcerated in the special hospitals of Broadmoor, Rampton and Ashworth.  The British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, obtained details of one such patient at Broadmoor. Piers Bolduc was earmarked for transfer to a non-secure unit more than two years ago, yet is still waiting to obtain his freedom.

            The single act of violence for which he was committed was carried out while on heavy doses of prescription drugs for schizophrenia, a condition he did not have. Since being sent to Broadmoor eight years ago, Bolduc, 27, has told his parents that he has been sexually abused by other patients.

            On November 3, David Lidington, Britain's shadow environment secretary and the Bolducs' family Member of Parliament, will call for a British government inquiry to find out how many residents of special hospitals have Asperger's syndrome. He said: "There needs to be a review to see how many there are in this situation."

            Psychiatrists say that many people suffering from Asperger's syndrome were wrongly diagnosed as schizophrenics up to the mid-1990s.

            Richard Mills, the director of research for Britain's National Autistic Society, said: "At the top end, you are looking at 60 to 70 individuals out of a population of 1,400 in these hospitals. Most of them have been subject to misdiagnosis and they also tend to stay in the special hospitals longer than average because people cannot find a way of treating them. Yet in psychological terms, you can't treat them because they are not sick."

            He said that people with Asperger's were not intrinsically violent. "Most clinicians believe that they are more likely to be victims of crime rather than perpetrators because they tend to be generally socially naïve, which means they tend to be bullied and exploited."

            Many of those misdiagnosed had been forcibly, and wrongly, given powerful drugs to combat non-existent schizophrenia, said Mills. "Anti-psychotic drugs given to people who are not psychotic are very harmful. Some of the effects can be irreversible."

            A spokesman for Britain's Department of Health said that it was unable to provide figures for people with Asperger's syndrome being kept at special hospitals.

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