Mental Competency
Research News and Information

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Assessment of the capacity to consent to treatment in patients admitted to acute medical wards.

31 Aug 2009 BACKGROUND: Assessment of capacity to consent to treatment is an important legal and ethical issue in daily medical practice. In this study we carefully evaluated the capacity to consent to treatment in patients admitted to an acute medical ward ... Read more...

Stopping eating and drinking.

30 Aug 2009 Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking, in which death occurs within one to three weeks of beginning the fast, is increasingly explored in the literature and mainstream media as an option to be discussed with "decisionally capable," suffering ... Read more...

When "no" means no: elderly patients' right to refuse treatment.

11 Aug 2009 In the complicated health care and legal system of the United States, all patients are endowed with certain rights. The American Hospital Association and the U.S. Supreme Court have each delineated certain rights to which patients who have the ... Read more...

Latest indexed articles for 'Mental Competency'

These are the very latest articles for this heading:

• Permanent sterilization of mentally disabled individuals: a case study. 30 Oct 2009
• Assessment of the capacity to consent to treatment in patients admitted to acute medical wards. 31 Aug 2009
• Saturday morning in the clinic. 30 Aug 2009
• ECHR 2009/10 Case of Dauti v. Albania, 3 February 2009, no. 19206/05 (Fourth section). 30 Aug 2009
• Stopping eating and drinking. 30 Aug 2009
• Informed consent is more than a patient's signature. 25 Aug 2009
• [Abuse is not excluded. The new regulation applies also without patient advance directives! (interview by Dr. med. Horst Gross)] 18 Aug 2009
• When "no" means no: elderly patients' right to refuse treatment. 11 Aug 2009
• Medicolegal knowledge in New Zealand. 5 Aug 2009
• Covert medication in older adults who lack decision-making capacity. 30 Jul 2009
• Mental health laws for those "compliant" with treatment. 30 Jul 2009
• [Circumcision for boys incapable of giving informed consent] 30 Jul 2009
• [Information for minors and parental authority] 30 Jul 2009
• The vote of acute medical inpatients: a prospective study. 30 Jul 2009
• Who has capacity? 14 Jul 2009
• Treating the infant of a minor. 29 Jun 2009
• Is it right to exclude people with a mental illness from jury service? 29 Jun 2009
• Uncertainty over safeguards. 29 Jun 2009
• [4/6. Relationships with the police, observation, examination] 29 Jun 2009
• [A difficult end of life] 29 Jun 2009

See a longer list of these articles.

Technical information about 'Mental Competency'

Definition: The ability to understand the nature and effect of the act in which the individual is engaged. (From Black's Law Dictionary, 6th ed).

Descriptor UI: D016743

Alternative terms: Mental Competency; Mental Competence; Competence, Mental; Competency, Mental; Incompetency, Mental; Mental Incompetency; Incompetence, Mental; Mental Incompetence; Competence;

Related Mesh Headings: Informed Consent; Insanity Defense; Legal Guardians; Treatment Refusal; Comprehension;

Allowable Qualifiers: classification; legislation & jurisprudence; psychology; standards;

Tree Number: F01.590; F02.410; I01.880.604.583.530; N03.706.535.625;

History Note: 92

Technical Notes: in mental retard or organic or psychiat mental disord; coord IM with concomitant disord /psychol (IM); competency to consent: coord IM with INFORMED CONSENT (IM)