Over the past twenty five years almost every aspect of psychiatry has been shaped by burgeoning legal and administrative procedures. Commitment, the right to treatment, the right to refuse treatment, monitoring drug therapy, hospital discharge, suicide assessment, confidentiality, the duty to warn, electroconvulsive therapy, malpractice suits, and standard of care are just some of the areas undergoing intense legal scrutiny. American Psychiatric Press Review of Clinical Psychiatry and Law series presents a comprehensive review of these important issues in clinical psychiatry and the law.

Written in response to the clinician's need for more knowledge and understanding of the fundamental interaction between psychiatry and the law, this volume is focused on promoting a collaborative spirit between psychiatry and the law in order to provide the best possible clinical care for patients

Section I: Somatic Therapies and the Law. Somatic therapies and the law. Section II: Confidentiality in Psychiatric Clinical Practice. Confidentiality and privilege. Confidentiality in the era of AIDS. Confidentiality in disputes over custody and visitation. Confidentiality and the psychiatric treatment of children and adolescents. Section III: The Duty to Warn. Introduction. Tarasoff and the moral duty to protect the vulnerable. The Tarasoff progeny. Clinical aspects of the duty to warn or protect. Defenses against dangerous people when arrest and commitment fail. The duty to warn or protect to prevent automobile accidents. Section IV: Psychiatric-Legal Diagnostic Dilemmas. The evolution of psychiatric-legal diagnostic dilemmas. Recent legal developments and psychiatry. Expert opinion: death in hindsight. The psychiatrist in the courtroom: two perspectives. Afterword. Index of cases. Index.

"This book will provide information essential to the understanding of the latest developments in law and psychiatry. Most laws in most states are still unsettled in regard to vital issues affecting psychiatrists. Read this book and follow the evolution of the law in the field of psychiatry. You won't find it better stated anywhere else."—Joseph Smith, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC

"Clinicians today get into enormous difficulty walking away from legal issues that arise in their practices. American Psychiatric Press Review of Clinical Psychiatry and the Law facilitates our confidence to face these issues."—Roger Peele, M.D., Chief Clinical Officer, St. Elizabeth Hospital, Commission on Mental Health Services, Washington, DC

Robert I. Simon, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Program in Psychiatry and Law, at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. He is board certified in both psychiatry and forensic psychiatry and is engaged in full-time private practice.