BACKGROUND Military veterans have higher rates of suicidality and completed suicides compared to the general population. Previous research has demonstrated suicidal behaviour is higher in US combat veterans who are younger, suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety and score lower on measures of health. However, research on predictors of suicide for Australian veterans i...

BACKGROUND Evidence from multilevel research investigating whether the places where people live influence their mental health remains inconclusive. The objectives of this study are to derive small area-level, or contextual, measures of the local social environment using benefits data from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and to investigate whether (1) the mental health status of indivi...

T he emphasis in medical law and ethics on protecting the patient’s right to choose is at an all time high. Apart from circumscribed situations, for instance where the Mental Health Act 1983 is applicable, the only justification for medically treating an adult patient against his or her wishes is on the basis of common law, using the principle of best interests, and only when he or she lacks ca...

Over the past few decades there has been a surge in the field of psycho social rehabilitation for the mentally ill patients who have developed chronicity. Basic objective of psycho social rehabilitation is to reduce the deleterious effect of psychiatric disorder on the sufferers’ socio-occupational functioning and life skills. It was seen previously that patients who had been put in a mental ho...

OBJECTIVES In the context of increasing attention to the rights of adults to make treatment decisions for themselves, this study investigated, among patients who have engaged in self-harm (i) the extent of valid decision making; (ii) the impact of mental disorders; and (iii) the effect of systematically providing relevant clinical information. DESIGN A prospective observational study. SETTI...

From a naturalistic perspective on mental illness, depression is often described in terms of biological dysfunctions, while a normative perspective emphasizes the lived experience of depression as a harmful condition. The paper relates a conceptual analysis of "depressive situation" to an analysis of the lived experience of depression. As such, it predominantly aims to specify depression as a h...

OBJECTIVES To determine to what extent current practice promotes the goals of individuals who did not designate a surrogate while competent with respect to decision-making during periods of decisional incapacity. DESIGN Systematic literature search for studies published in English and listed in PubMed, Scopus, Embase, CINAHL, or PsycINFO. Studies were eligible if they provided quantitative or...

The recent Mental Capacity Act (2005) sets out a test for assessing a person's capacity to make treatment choices. In some cases, particularly in psychiatry, it is unclear how the criteria ought to be interpreted and applied by clinicians. In this paper, I argue that this uncertainty arises because the concept of capacity employed in the Act, and the diagnostic tools developed to assist its ass...