The Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance usually receives between eight and nine million new claims for sickness and injury benefits in a year and records certified incapacity for work totalling nearly 300 million days. Detailed analyses are made from the records of spells of incapacity for work in respect of 5 per cent. of the insured population. These analyses are designed to show the ...

The House of Lords in F v West Berkshire Health Authority [1989] considered the lawfulness of providing care and treatment for a mentally incapacitated adult. They did not, however, directly consider the use of restraint to enable the provision of care in the face of resistance from the patient. The law has since had good cause to give consideration to this important issue. This paper establish...

At the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a detention camp guard, charged with acts of murder and torture, advanced a plea of diminished responsibility. Defense psychiatrists testified that he had a personality disorder that influenced his ability to control his behavior, but a prosecution expert testified that the guard did not meet Diagnostic and Statistical M...

Subjective incapacity and fatigue are common as secondary symptoms in many physical and psychiatric disorders. In the last decade, however, a range of “new” illnesses has emerged in which incapacity and fatigue are the primary and central complaints. Patients with these illnesses may often be difficult to treat on an individual level. In the public domain, they are very vocal, challenging medic...

In personal injury (PI) litigation involving musculoskeletal incapacity, the terms 'functional overlay' and 'illness behaviour' are frequently adduced to explain the persistence of pain (and associated incapacity) following injury, particularly where the physical findings are inconclusive. They are often diagnosed 'by exclusion' based on the absence of conclusive physical findings rather then t...

Following a report from the Secretary General in May 1993, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 827 and its Statute establishing an International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) located in The Hague, The Netherlands. Although such action has been discussed in the past, this is the first time the international community has established a tribunal to indict ...

As more veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often returns with them. As a result, PTSD has quickly become the most prevalent mental disorder diagnosis among active duty United States (U.S.) military. Although numerous studies have not only validated PTSD but have chronicled its negative behavioral impact, it remains a controversial diagnosis. It is wi...