Present-day legal judgments of psychopathological criminals strongly avoid the exploitation of “moral” considerations. Currently, the attribution of responsibility to criminals often takes advantage of the cognitive concept of mental incapacity so that, in these cases, the moral judgment about moral conducts of “psycho-pathological” criminals is potentially extinguished. We contend that the the...

INTRODUCTION Competency means the capacity to make responsible and balanced decisions. This may be performed in clinical settings (decision-making abilities on treatment or risky diagnostic procedures) and also in daily-life activities (financial matters, nursing home admittance, contracts, etc.). Competency is linked to the ethical principle of autonomy and to a horizontal doctor-patient inter...

Musculoskeletal disorders are among the most common causes of sickness absence, long-term incapacity for work and ill-health retirement. The number of Incapacity Benefit (IB) recipients in the United Kingdom has trebled since 1979, despite improvement in objective measures of health. Most of the trend is in non-specific conditions (largely subjective complaints, often with little objective path...

BACKGROUND Although mental illness remains the leading cause of both sickness absence and incapacity benefit in most high-income countries, little is known about how frequently patients with mental ill-health receive sickness certificates and what conditions are most commonly certified for. This study aims to use general practice consultation data to determine the rate of sickness certification...

Hospital patients are at risk of dehydration, especially if they cannot drink unaided due to physical or mental incapacity. Dehydration may lead to complications and result in costly interventions. A sports-style bottle has been developed into a hands-free drinking system by fitting a drinking tube into the screw top. We trialled the bottle on acute wards and in the community to test claims tha...

Mental health is a general term used to refer, not only to the absence of the mental disorders but also to the ability of the individual to negotiate the daily challenges and social interactions of life without experiencing cognitive, emotional or behavioural dysfunction. Mental health and mental disorders can be affected by numerous factors ranging from biologic to genetic vulnerabilities, acu...