BackgroundElectroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a procedure that attracts special safeguards
under common law for voluntary patients and under both current and proposed mental …

Context Nonadherence to antipsychotic medication is a major cause of psychotic relapse
and is strongly influenced by attitudes toward treatment. Although patient variables such as …

Are expert witnesses needed in child sexual abuse cases to educate jurors about children's
memory, suggestibility, and reactions to abuse, or do jurors already know what such experts …

Racial disparities in medical treatments and in health status have been documented in
numerous studies over the past two decades. In an editorial in the New England Journal of …

Background Measures of perceived coercion at psychiatric hospital admission have been
developed. We aimed to investigate predictors of perceived coercion in subjects admitted to …

The concept of empowerment has become increasingly popular with mental health
professionals. But while it is a frequently cited goal in the helping professions, empowerment …

In this Foreword, the co-guest editors of this symposium on mental health courts introduce
the topic by defining the concept, describing the reasons for its inception, and noting the …

The number of mental health courts (MHCs) is steadily increasing. Although the courts are
voluntary, it is unknown whether decisions to enter MHCs are made knowingly and …

Approximately half the people receiving treatment in the public sector for mental disorder
have experienced some form of “leverage” in which deprivations such as jail or …

Psychiatric hospitalization constitutes a moment of major stress to the point that occurrences
of posttraumatic stress disorders have been described. Feelings of coercion are usual …