December 12, 2013 - 10:05 PM
FORT WORTH, Texas - The American Psychiatric Association says it does not recognize the diagnosis of "affluenza," that a psychologist said a wealthy North Texas teenager suffered from when he killed four pedestrians while driving drunk.
The association says there is no such diagnosis in its most recent manual published in May.
A defence lawyer argued that the 16-year-old boy should not get the maximum 20-year prison sentence that prosecutors had sought due to this diagnosis.
A Fort Worth juvenile court sentenced the boy Tuesday to 10 years of probation after he confessed to intoxication manslaughter in the June 15 accident.
Defence witness psychologist Gary Miller says the boy grew up in a house where the parents were preoccupied with arguments that led to a divorce and that he suffered from "affluenza."
News from © The Associated Press, 2013