Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:600-604
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
The psychiatrist as legal guardian
RM Wettstein and LH Roth
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA.
Most discussions about legal guardianship pertain to special populations,
such as the mentally retarded or demented. Except for the case of refusal
of antipsychotic medication, little has been written about using
guardianship to authorize nonemergency treatment for a person who is
mentally ill and treatable. The authors present several cases in which a
consulting or administrative psychiatrist served as a temporary guardian
for a hospitalized patient's personal affairs. The psychiatrist-guardian
authorized diagnostic procedures or ECT for the temporarily incompetent
patient and was then discharged as guardian. The authors discuss the
problems and limitations of such a role for the psychiatrist.
