Two papers examining mental incapacity among psychiatric in-patients are presented in the Journal this month – one investigation focuses on assessment reliability (Cairns et al, pp. 372–378) and one on the prevalence and predictors of incapacity (Cairns et al, pp. 379–385). The authors find that the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment (MacCAT– T) can be used reliably to assess ca...

AIM The aim of the article was to investigate how during the last 25 years of implementation of the new canons law code changed the use of these new law regulations by the church lawyers as well as the mental causes for marital incapacity. METHOD The basis of investigation was the analysis of 135 forensic-psychiatric opinions made by the author for the Metropolitan Tribunal of Gniezno in the ...

BACKGROUND Government benefits paid to those unfit for work or the work market as a result of ill health have been rising dramatically in Great Britain, in parallel with increases throughout Europe and North America. Psychological conditions are known to be an important cause of sickness absence. This study set out to examine trends in government sickness and invalidity benefits in Britain betw...

CONTEXT Evaluation of the capacity of a patient to make medical decisions should occur in the context of specific medical decisions when incapacity is considered. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of incapacity and assessment accuracy in adult medicine patients without severe mental illnesses. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE and EMBASE (from their inception through April 2011) and bibliographies o...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence of mental capacity to make decisions on treatment in people from different diagnostic and legal groups admitted to psychiatric hospital. DESIGN Cross sectional study. SETTING General adult acute psychiatric inpatient units. PARTICIPANTS 350 consecutive people admitted to psychiatric wards from the community over 16 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Mental...

While the decision of the House of Lords in Re F in [1990] clarified somewhat the law concerning the treatment of the mentally incapacitated adult, many uncertainties remained. This paper explores proposals discussed in a recent government green paper for reform of the law in an area involving many difficult ethical dilemmas.