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Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study
OBJECTIVES: To identify patterns in euthanasia requests and practices relating to psychiatric patients; to generate recommendations for future research. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of data obtained through medical file review. SETTING: Outpatient psychiatric clinical setting in the Dutch-speaking...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530448/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26216150 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007454 |
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author | Thienpont, Lieve Verhofstadt, Monica Van Loon, Tony Distelmans, Wim Audenaert, Kurt De Deyn, Peter P |
author_facet | Thienpont, Lieve Verhofstadt, Monica Van Loon, Tony Distelmans, Wim Audenaert, Kurt De Deyn, Peter P |
author_sort | Thienpont, Lieve |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: To identify patterns in euthanasia requests and practices relating to psychiatric patients; to generate recommendations for future research. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of data obtained through medical file review. SETTING: Outpatient psychiatric clinical setting in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, between October 2007 and December 2011; follow-up at the end of December 2012. PARTICIPANTS: 100 consecutive psychiatric patients requesting euthanasia based on psychological suffering associated with psychiatric disorders (77 women, 23 men; mean age 47 years; age range 21–80 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient sociodemographic characteristics; diagnoses; decisions on euthanasia requests; circumstances of euthanasia procedures; patient outcomes at follow-up. RESULTS: Most patients had been referred for psychiatric counselling by their physician (n=55) or by LEIF (Life End Information Forum) (n=36). 90 patients had >1 disorder; the most frequent diagnoses were depression (n=58) and personality disorder (n=50). 38 patients required further testing and/or treatment, including 13 specifically tested for autism spectrum disorder (ASD); 12 received an ASD diagnosis (all Asperger syndrome). In total, 48 of the euthanasia requests were accepted and 35 were carried out. Of the 13 remaining patients whose requests were accepted, 8 postponed or cancelled the procedure, because simply having this option gave them enough peace of mind to continue living. In December 2012, 43 patients had died, including 35 by euthanasia; others died by suicide (6), palliative sedation (1) and anorexia nervosa (1). CONCLUSIONS: Depression and personality disorders are the most common diagnoses in psychiatric patients requesting euthanasia, with Asperger syndrome representing a neglected disease burden. Further research is needed, especially prospective quantitative and qualitative studies, to obtain a better understanding of patients with psychiatric disorders who request euthanasia due to unbearable psychological suffering. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4530448 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-45304482015-08-13 Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study Thienpont, Lieve Verhofstadt, Monica Van Loon, Tony Distelmans, Wim Audenaert, Kurt De Deyn, Peter P BMJ Open Mental Health OBJECTIVES: To identify patterns in euthanasia requests and practices relating to psychiatric patients; to generate recommendations for future research. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of data obtained through medical file review. SETTING: Outpatient psychiatric clinical setting in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, between October 2007 and December 2011; follow-up at the end of December 2012. PARTICIPANTS: 100 consecutive psychiatric patients requesting euthanasia based on psychological suffering associated with psychiatric disorders (77 women, 23 men; mean age 47 years; age range 21–80 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient sociodemographic characteristics; diagnoses; decisions on euthanasia requests; circumstances of euthanasia procedures; patient outcomes at follow-up. RESULTS: Most patients had been referred for psychiatric counselling by their physician (n=55) or by LEIF (Life End Information Forum) (n=36). 90 patients had >1 disorder; the most frequent diagnoses were depression (n=58) and personality disorder (n=50). 38 patients required further testing and/or treatment, including 13 specifically tested for autism spectrum disorder (ASD); 12 received an ASD diagnosis (all Asperger syndrome). In total, 48 of the euthanasia requests were accepted and 35 were carried out. Of the 13 remaining patients whose requests were accepted, 8 postponed or cancelled the procedure, because simply having this option gave them enough peace of mind to continue living. In December 2012, 43 patients had died, including 35 by euthanasia; others died by suicide (6), palliative sedation (1) and anorexia nervosa (1). CONCLUSIONS: Depression and personality disorders are the most common diagnoses in psychiatric patients requesting euthanasia, with Asperger syndrome representing a neglected disease burden. Further research is needed, especially prospective quantitative and qualitative studies, to obtain a better understanding of patients with psychiatric disorders who request euthanasia due to unbearable psychological suffering. BMJ Publishing Group 2015-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4530448/ /pubmed/26216150 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007454 Text en Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Mental Health Thienpont, Lieve Verhofstadt, Monica Van Loon, Tony Distelmans, Wim Audenaert, Kurt De Deyn, Peter P Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study |
title | Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study |
title_full | Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study |
title_fullStr | Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study |
title_full_unstemmed | Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study |
title_short | Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study |
title_sort | euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study |
topic | Mental Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530448/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26216150 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007454 |
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