Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:308-312
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
White House Cases: psychiatric patients and the Secret Service
D Shore, CR Filson, TS Davis, G Olivos, L DeLisi and RJ Wyatt
Delusional visitors to the White House or other government offices (often
seeking a personal audience with the President) are interviewed by the
Secret Service and then sent to Saint Elizabeths Hospital if they are
considered mentally ill and potentially dangerous to themselves or others.
A review of the demographic characteristics and diagnoses of 328 of these
"White House Cases" treated at the hospital between 1970 and mid-1974
showed that these patients were most commonly unmarried, white, and male,
and most had a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Although 22% of this
group have threatened some prominent political figure, to date none of this
study's patients has attempted to assassinate any such government official.
