Vulnerability in Varying Contexts Affecting Decision Making in Patients With Treatment- Resistant Depression Contemplating Deep Brain Stimulation: Implications for Clinicians

摘要

Patients offered experimental or novel treatments for serious conditions are often considered vulnerable, desperate for a possible cure, and hence unable to weigh risks/ benefits (Mathews et al. 2018). Lawrence and colleagues’ valuable research demonstrates the value of feeding patient experience into ethical frameworks and clinical practice by showing that the patients with treatmentresistant depression (TRD) in their study were more cautious than keen when contemplating deep brain stimulation (DBS) (Lawrence et al. 2019).