Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:1170-1176
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Empirical assessment of competency to consent to psychiatric hospitalization
PS Appelbaum, SA Mirkin and AL Bateman
The authors used an interview questionnaire to assess competency to consent
to voluntary admission in a group of 50 newly admitted psychiatric
patients. Using a number of alternative definitions of competency with this
sample of patients tested shortly after admission, they found that a
majority of patients appeared to have severe impairment of competency.
These results suggest limitations in the applicability of the legal model
of informed consent to the psychiatric setting.
