Capacitating relatives of incapacitated patients

Can we improve treatment decision-making for incapacitated patients?

When patients cannot make their own treatment decisions, surrogates typically step in to do it for them. Surrogate decision-making is far from ideal, of course, as the surrogate may not know what the patient prefers or what best promotes her interests. One way to improve it would be to arm surrogates with information about what patients in similar circumstances tend to prefer, allowing them to ...

New York enacts surrogate decision-making legislation for incapacitated patients.

comparision of the attitudes of nurses and relatives of icu and ccu patients towards the psychosocial needs of patients relatives

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Patients' and relatives' assessment of clozapine treatment.

BACKGROUND Subjective evaluations by schizophrenic patients and their relatives of clozapine treatment were assessed as part of an exploratory study. METHODS A problem-centred interview was carried out with 80 patients at discharge from in-patient or day-hospital treatment. Views of 46 relatives on the treatment were also assessed. RESULTS In addition to expected effects (improvement of or ...

Evaluation of Pulmonary Hypertension In First Degree Relatives Of Patients With Primary Pulmonary Hypertension

Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) was defined for the first time in 1951 as primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH). Some studies emphasized on the role of genetics in the development of pulmonary hypertension in family members of affected patients. So, in this study we evaluated the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension in first degree family of patients with documented PPH. Methods: In thi...