RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 What Constitutes a Psychiatric Emergency: Clinical and Legal Dimensions
JF Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
JO J Am Acad Psychiatry Law
FD American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
SP 57
OP 68
VO 15
IS 1
A1 Swartz, Marvin S.
YR 1987
UL http://jaapl.org/content/15/1/57.abstract
AB In true medical emergencies, informed consent is presumed or implied without application of the usual standard. In the litigation over the right to refuse treatment in psychiatry, a limited right for involuntarily committed patients to refuse treatment has been upheld, absent a finding of a psychiatric emergency. Increasingly, clinicians may find that their sole extrajudicial option in instituting treatment over the patient's objection is in invoking a psychiatric emergency. The purpose of this communication is to discuss the clinical and legal issues in defining and invoking a psychiatric emergency in treatment refusal. The substantive and procedural issues in the use of the emergency exception in treatment refusal are discussed with recommendations for their use in clinical practice.