Schizophrenics stab 'a person a week' to death

London, October 12 : Schizophrenics slay at least one person every week due to mental healthcare failures, reveal shocking new figures.

According to the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness, schizophrenics committed five per cent of total murders.

The murder count had tripled in 20 years with the number running between 50 to 70 deaths per year in England.

Though most schizophrenics are not violent, but 2,000 a year commit suicide.

The cause of such fatal events was accorded to situations arising from the premature release of the paranoid schizophrenics, or their discontinuation of their medication since they were left with the responsibility of taking their own anti-psychotic drugs.

This had led to new British Government orders, according to which doctors will have to force the mentally unfit patients to take their medication - or face being sectioned again.

However, these new Community Treatment Orders were opposed by mental health charities that fear that their imposition would stigmatise the patients.

A spokeswoman for mental health charity 'Mind' doubted if the new orders would offer greater protection.

"We are concerned they will sweep people into treatment unnecessarily, and could even scare some away from treatment," the Daily Express quoted her as saying.

Michael Howlett, director of 'The Zito Trust', put in a word of caution saying that public safety was being undermined for political correctness.

He said: "It is dangerous to underestimate the dangers a few individuals can pose if they are left untreated. "Organisations like the Mental Health Alliance underestimate the dangers because they don't work with the families of the victims."

Howlett further added that he absolutely countered those who thought these deadly incidents to be rare. He said: "These attacks are so random and horrifying. The victims are not just stabbed once or twice, we are talking about a frenzied attack. The mental health field is focused on human rights.

"We hear all the time this argument that fatalities are rare but we are talking about 50 to 70 deaths a year. I don't think that is rare at all."

ANI