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Biomedical subjects

M D Steinberg

Publications and source records attributed to M D Steinberg.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Psychiatry and bioethics. An exploration of the relationship.

Psychiatrists have been extensively involved in ethics in the general hospital over the past two decades and have functioned in that area in a variety of roles. The basis for psychiatry's strong interest in bioethics can be understood as related to three factors: familiarity with many of the clinical problems that lead to bioethics consultation, the frequent importance of psychiatric aspects of ethics, and the observation that psychiatrists already possess many of the clinical skills necessary for doing ethics work. The particular value of training psychiatrists to serve as ethics consultants, in addition to the importance of their continuing role on hospital ethics committees, is discussed.

Bioethical Issues↗

An annotated bibliography for ethics training in consultation-liaison psychiatry.

The expanding field of bioethics has created a need in psychiatry for rapid access to the complex bioethics literature. This is especially true in consultation-liaison work. An annotated bibliography was created by a task force of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine charged with exploring how psychiatrists function on bioethics committees. The bibliography is organized into headings that reflect how bioethical problems came to the attention of psychiatrists. Introductory references allow the reader an overview of the history of bioethics and a selection of useful textbooks. References are provided explaining how ethical principles are used. References are also organized by areas of medical work frequently visited by consultation-liaison psychiatrists.

Bioethics↗

Psychiatric evaluation of death-hastening requests. Lessons from dialysis discontinuation.

The authors aim to facilitate the psychiatric evaluation of death-hastening decisions, such as cessation of life-support treatment or physician-assisted suicide, by deriving principles for evaluating patients from a literature review and a recently completed prospective study on dialysis discontinuation conducted by consultation psychiatrists. Factors are delineated and suggestions are provided for the evaluation of requests to accelerate dying. Included are the authors' method for determining major depression in the context of terminal illness and their "vector analysis" in assessing patient requests to stop dialysis. As our society heatedly examines the care provided to the terminally ill, psychiatry also needs to reconsider whether actions that foreshorten life can be normative and permissible. Familiarity with competency, psychiatric diagnosis, and ease in communication and negotiation between patient, family, and staff are resources that psychiatrists can bring to these complicated assessments. Challenging areas include diagnosing depression, establishing the adequacy of palliative care, and appreciating issues related to personality features, family dynamics, and ethnic differences.

Major Depressive Disorder↗