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The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the medico-legal and human rights of psychiatric patients

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised significant concerns for population mental health and the effective provision of mental health services in the light of increased demands and barriers to service delivery [1]. Particular attention is being directed toward the possible neuropsychiatric sequelae of bot...

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Autores principales: Thome, Johannes, Coogan, Andrew N., Simon, Frederick, Fischer, Matthias, Tucha, Oliver, Faltraco, Frank, Marazziti, Donatella, Butzer, Hermann
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7280152/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32468988
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2020.58
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author Thome, Johannes
Coogan, Andrew N.
Simon, Frederick
Fischer, Matthias
Tucha, Oliver
Faltraco, Frank
Marazziti, Donatella
Butzer, Hermann
author_facet Thome, Johannes
Coogan, Andrew N.
Simon, Frederick
Fischer, Matthias
Tucha, Oliver
Faltraco, Frank
Marazziti, Donatella
Butzer, Hermann
author_sort Thome, Johannes
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has raised significant concerns for population mental health and the effective provision of mental health services in the light of increased demands and barriers to service delivery [1]. Particular attention is being directed toward the possible neuropsychiatric sequelae of both COVID-19 and of the stringent societal mitigation steps deployed by national governments, concerns that are informed by historical increases in the incidence of psychotic disorders following influenza pandemics [2]. However, so far there has been scant attention paid to other important areas of psychiatry during COVID-19, including medico-legal aspects and human rights. In this paper, we discuss the legal implications for psychiatry of the COVID-19 pandemic and report a novel situation in which psychiatric patients may experience diminution of their statutory protections. We believe that this represents a paradigm shift in psychiatric care and that the consideration of the fundamental rights of psychiatric patients as “less important” than infection control measures compel mental health professionals to “advocate for … patients and their caregivers” in this time of crisis [1].
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spelling pubmed-72801522020-06-09 The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the medico-legal and human rights of psychiatric patients Thome, Johannes Coogan, Andrew N. Simon, Frederick Fischer, Matthias Tucha, Oliver Faltraco, Frank Marazziti, Donatella Butzer, Hermann Eur Psychiatry Viewpoint The COVID-19 pandemic has raised significant concerns for population mental health and the effective provision of mental health services in the light of increased demands and barriers to service delivery [1]. Particular attention is being directed toward the possible neuropsychiatric sequelae of both COVID-19 and of the stringent societal mitigation steps deployed by national governments, concerns that are informed by historical increases in the incidence of psychotic disorders following influenza pandemics [2]. However, so far there has been scant attention paid to other important areas of psychiatry during COVID-19, including medico-legal aspects and human rights. In this paper, we discuss the legal implications for psychiatry of the COVID-19 pandemic and report a novel situation in which psychiatric patients may experience diminution of their statutory protections. We believe that this represents a paradigm shift in psychiatric care and that the consideration of the fundamental rights of psychiatric patients as “less important” than infection control measures compel mental health professionals to “advocate for … patients and their caregivers” in this time of crisis [1]. Cambridge University Press 2020-05-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7280152/ /pubmed/32468988 http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2020.58 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Viewpoint
Thome, Johannes
Coogan, Andrew N.
Simon, Frederick
Fischer, Matthias
Tucha, Oliver
Faltraco, Frank
Marazziti, Donatella
Butzer, Hermann
The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the medico-legal and human rights of psychiatric patients
title The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the medico-legal and human rights of psychiatric patients
title_full The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the medico-legal and human rights of psychiatric patients
title_fullStr The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the medico-legal and human rights of psychiatric patients
title_full_unstemmed The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the medico-legal and human rights of psychiatric patients
title_short The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the medico-legal and human rights of psychiatric patients
title_sort impact of the covid-19 outbreak on the medico-legal and human rights of psychiatric patients
topic Viewpoint
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7280152/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32468988
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2020.58
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