ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Page Count: 8

Liberty and Tardive Dyskinesia: Informed Consent to Antipsychotic Medication in the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital
Kleinman, SB
Attending psychiatrist, Forensic Psychiatry Clinic for the Criminal and Supreme Courts of Manhattan, and assistant professor in clinical psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, NY

(Received 20 June 1989; accepted 3 October 1989)

Abstract

This paper addresses informed consent to antipsychotic medication of those incarcerated in a forensic psychiatric hospital. The ways in which the unique setting of the forensic psychiatric hospital impinge upon the three components of informed consent—information, voluntariness, and competency—are explored. Special attention is given to the risk-benefit ratio of receiving antipsychotic medication in terms of the liberty interests at stake—freedom of movement, that is, the effects of tardive dyskinesia, and freedom of space, that is, release from the forensic psychiatric facility.

Keywords:
psychiatry, mental illness, informed consent, tardive dyskinesia, antipsychotic medication, coercion, competency, forensic psychiatric hospital

Paper ID: JFS12939J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS12939J
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