Abstract
A 15-item questionnaire used to evaluate competency to consent to psychiatric hospitalization was validated using a blind forensic psychiatric interview. The statistical correlation was excellent with p < .001. The questionnaire also correlated highly with the Mini-Mental State Exam (p < .05), the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (p < .05), and the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised vocabulary subtest (p < .01). This questionnaire may be a useful instrument for preliminary screening of psychiatric patients for competency to consent to hospitalization and general psychiatric treatment.
Footnotes
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This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Maui, HI, 1994. The study was conducted within the Department of Psychiatry at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center of New York, NY.
- Copyright © 1996, The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
