Informed Consent in Psychiatric Practice

Abstract

All medical interventions need informed consent of the patient, which is obtained after providing all the relevant information to him in a comprehensible form resulting in meaningful decision making. Psychiatric patients, on some occasions, lack the capacity to take decisions on their mental health care and treatment. Utmost care should be taken in dealing with such patients, to proceed for their treatment after obtaining consent from their relatives/friends as per the legal provisions. The recently introduced Mental Health Care Bill – 2013 contains elaborate provisions regarding informed consent, which is to be obtained from persons with mental illness, and/or his nominated representative. Full informed consent is mandatory from all participants before proceeding to carry out any research project. Persons with mental illness who lack capacity to give consent should be included in a research study, only if there is likelihood of benefit for them or if it is intended to promote the health of the population represented by the potential subject.