Abstract
The first year of Maryland's new Clinical Review Panel (CRP) statute in one state psychiatric hospital is reviewed. CRPs provide a nonjudicial means to administer medication to an involuntarily committed psychiatric patient refusing medicines in a nonemergency situation. While the statute adds appropriate formal procedural protections and while the CRP process “works,” the statute also adds the possibility of unnecessary legal proceedings. Clinical decisions about medications should be made by psychiatrists and not by lawyers or judges.
Footnotes
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Dr. Storch is assistant professor of psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Walter P. Carter Center, 630 West Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.
- Copyright © 1993, The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
