Constitutional requirements in the commitment of the mentally ill in the U.S.A.: rights to liberty and therapy.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Two cases with XYY chromosome complement are presented and compared with 153 cases described in the literature. Some patients with abnormalities of personality development and manifest psychopathology may have sex chromosome abnormalities and should be studied further for the interaction of genetic and environmental factors in personality development. In particular, tall, schizoid impulsive men with a history of criminality, arson or sexual offences should be screened for this particular genetic configuration. Because of the biased manner by which most of the cases are found, it is not yet known whether an XYY genotype results in a characteristic phenotype. What is needed is a genetic study of a normal population and a prospective study of newborns with various genotypes which would, unfortunately, create complex research and ethical problems.
A patient was successfully charged with assault of a nurse on a Psychiatric Unit and was placed on probation for one year. The judge found her guilty despite the location of the incident and her 20-year history of previous psychiatric treatment, including 14 hospitalizations. Following this confrontation, the patient improved markedly in her behaviour and has continued to lead a more productive life without hysterical outbursts. It is concluded that proceeding with legal charges in such a situation is justifiable and can also be therapeutic.
This paper examines the practice of involuntary mental hospitalization through examination of criteria used for committment in a sample of 200 civil commitment certificates. Special reference is made, following previous research, to criteria used to describe the person deemed dangerous to himself or to others. The relevance of the findings of present practices in mental health is discussed. New procedures which facilitate presentation of factual evidence, and which eliminate gratuitous information, are required without delay.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Following categorization procedures used in previous studies samples of 75 and 62 involuntary admissions. Form 3s and applications from assessment respectively (1978 Mental Health Act), were examined. There occurred a significant decline in civil commitments (Form 3s) in the 8-month period subsequent to, as compared to the 6-month period preceding, the revised legislation. This decline, however, occurred only when data for assessment applications were omitted from analysis. Operating criteria for civil commitment, as determined from certificate analyses, showed no substantive changes as compated to those found in previous studies of then-current legislation. Some interpretation and discussion of such findings are presented. More research is required to assess further the reality and nature of effects generated by the new law. A salutory feature of the law is that review of psychiatric assessments, at or within a 5-day period after admission, is correlated with a change to voluntary status in most cases. The exact meaning of this and of other specific effects await further study.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The survey of 102 consecutive certificates for involuntary admission and a review of the case material demonstrated that in 78 cases the form was completed adequately. In 13 cases full description of evidence of mental disorder was lacking on the certificate but after reviewing the cases it would appear that clear evidence of mental disorder was probably present at the time of certification. In this survey, suicidal or homicidal risk alone was not considered evidence of mental disorder. In the full 11 cases the grounds for diagnosing mental disorder rested upon the presence of phenomena like anger, alcoholism, or mild mental retardation or the presence of a personality disorder, all of these being associated with risk to the patient or another person. Compelling evidence for the necessity of psychiatric commitment in these complex situations cannot be described briefly; thus it does not appear that an altered certification form would solve the problem.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Psychiatric, psychosocial and medicolegal issues related to 34 arsonists and 50 controls are described. Arson was most frequently committed by males who suffered from personality disorder, mental retardation or depressive neurosis. Poor school and work records also characterized their background when compared to the control forensic psychiatric patients. The offence more frequently occurred within a one mile radius of their own home in residential property. Revenge or a "cry for help" was the most frequent motivation for the firesetting activity.
Forensic psychiatrists in six Canadian municipalities completed a single-page form following each court-ordered assessment conducted during the month of July 1978. A total of 248 cases accumulated during the study period. During the following 18 months researchers collected court dispositions on the sample. With data from all six cities pooled, 85% of patients were found fit to stand trail. Almost all, 96%, were accorded a diagnosis with 39% classified as psychotic. Overall the examining psychiatrists considered 36% to be dangerous to others in the future. When psychiatrists recommended a custodial setting, in 73% of cases the person was incarcerated. Recommendations for hospitalization were observed in 59% of cases. Although the data would seem to suggest that judges take psychiatrists' recommendations into account, the investigators were nonetheless struck by the general lack of communication between clinic and court. They offer a number a number of suggestions for improvement.
Data collected from the Metropolitan Toronto Forensic Service (METFORS) were examined to determine factors affecting psychiatric assessments completed for the courts. Psychiatric history is found to be a salient factor for fitness to stand trial decisions; prior violence and the type of charge influence dangerousness to others determinations. Variables affecting whether or not a patient is recommended for further assessment include fitness: 78% of those found fit and 100% of those for whom fitness was unclear were recommended for further assessment in 68% of the cases. Patients who were threatening or acting out were not for the most part hospitalized. Relatively high correlations between psychiatric recommendations derived from these assessments and the actual judicial dispositions suggest that knowledge of the extra legal factors and biases which enter into the decisions should be more widely considered in the legal setting.
The value and place of residential treatment for disturbed children and adolescents have been increasingly questioned in recent years. Possible reasons for this are examined. The place of residential treatment, and its value as a specialized form of therapy, are discussed. The treatment of disturbed young people in residential settings should only be undertaken as part of a wider therapeutic plan. The need for placement away from home, for the protection of the community or for other reasons not directly concerned with the child's treatment, must be distinguished from the need for residential treatment. The rationale and goals of treatment must always be defined in advance, and the needs of the system to which the child belongs must be considered along with those of the presenting patient.
Physicians have been criticized for abusing the civil rights of the mentally ill by their methods of committal. To see if such criticism is justified in Canada, a review was conducted of all the major legal journals to identify cases in which it was alleged that physicians had wrongfully certified a patient. These cases are outlined, and, when considered along with the scientific literature, show no justification to support allegations of abuse, but rather show that physicians act with care and concern on behalf of their patients.