Revealed: Disputed medical terms used to explain dozens of deaths after police restraint in UK

Campaigners says excited delirium' and acute behavioural disturbance' play into racist stereotypes

A controversial unproven medical condition which is rooted in pseudoscience and disputed by doctors is routinely being used in Britain to explain deaths after police restraint, the Observer has found.

Acute behavioural disturbance" (ABD) and excited delirium" are used to describe people who are agitated or acting bizarrely, usually due to mental illness, drug use or both. Symptoms are said to include insensitivity to pain, aggression, superhuman" strength and elevated heart rate.