‘Excited delirium’: term linked to police restraint in UK medical guide condemned

Public health bodies and families say term carries racial bias and is used to justify lethal use of force by police

Public health bodies, charities and the families of men who died after being restrained by police have condemned the inclusion of a controversial medical term in one of the UK's leading medical handbooks.

Acute behavioural disturbance (ABD), more commonly known as excited delirium", a contentious expression used in fatal cases of police violence, has recently been added to the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines (MPG).