Psychiatrische Aspekte der Geschäfts- und Einwilligungsfähigkeit

摘要

In his profession the psychiatrist is confronted more and more with judicial subjects. One of the most common problems is the determination of the capacity of informed consent regarding the medical treatment or to the participation in scientific studies. According to new empirical studies, a substantial number of patients in psychiatry are incapable of informed consent. Hence, an in-depth knowledge about forensic-psychiatric evaluation of the capacity of informed consent is essential. In the present report the capacity of informed consent is defined as a sub-form of the legal capacity. The expert’s approach to determining legal incapacity will be discussed by means of psychopathological disorders and psychiatric clinical patterns. The specifics of the capacity of informed consent will be reasoned according to international criteria. The gathered standards are to help the psychiatrist working diagnostically, therapeutically or creating medical opinions in the difficult balancing of patients’ autonomy and patients’ beneficence.