Mental Health
Involuntary Psychiatric Commitments among Non-Western Immigrants During the Muhammad Cartoon Controversy in Denmark Tim Bruckner* Tim Bruckner Parvati Singh Camilla Hvidfelt Lars Andersen
Persons deemed a danger to themselves, others, or gravely disabled may receive involuntary psychiatric commitment if family, other residents, law enforcement, or clinicians initiate this process. On September 30, 2005, a Danish newspaper published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. This publication led to the worst foreign policy crisis in Denmark since the second World War. Whereas protests within Denmark against the cartoon remained peaceful, this cartoon controversy—including the attacks on four Danish embassies outside of Denmark—may have reduced societal tolerance for threatening or deviant behavior among non-Western immigrants. We test whether this cartoon controversy preceded greater than expected counts of new involuntary psychiatric commitments among non-Western immigrants. Rigorous interrupted time-series methods support this hypothesis in that new involuntary psychiatric commitments rose by 10.5 per quarter (95% Confidence Interval: 3.95, 17.03), which equates to a 43% rise, during the controversy (p<.01). Changes in help-seeking overall for mental health services do not appear to account for this rise in new involuntary commitments. In addition, the pattern of results indicates that anti-immigrant sentiment in the broader community, rather than within the police force, likely contributed to this rise. Findings cohere with the notion that population-wide controversies may lower societal tolerance for behavior deemed deviant—and in this case, specifically among non-Western immigrants.