Abstract
To the Editor.— Drs King and Young relied on the rates that anticonvulsant medications were actually prescribed by the physicians who provide medical care in various correctional institutions and concluded that the incidence of seizure disorders is increased among prisoners. Unfortunately, the authors have failed to consider several of the following possible sources of bias: (1) As a generalization, prisoners are skilled at manipulating others to get what they want. (2) One might anticipate a certain willingness by prisoners to go to some lengths to obtain a sedative, and phenobarbital, commonly used in the treatment of seizure disorders, is a coveted downer. (3) A false-negative error in the treatment of a seizure disorder would be highly visible to many members of a prison community and possibly highly embarrassing for a prison physician, while a false-positive error would not be noticed in an environment wherein the watchword must be don't rock
Published Version
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