Involuntary treatment (also referred to by proponents as assisted treatment and by critics as forced drugging) refers to medical treatment undertaken without a person's consent. In almost all circumstances, involuntary treatment refers to psychiatric treatment administered despite an individual's objections. These are typically individuals who have been diagnosed with a mental illness and are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. Look up Therapy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Consent (as a term of jurisprudence) is a possible justification against civil or criminal liability. ... Psychiatry is a branch of medicine dealing with the prevention, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of the mind and mental illness. ...

Justifications and criticisms

Justification for involuntary treatment is often attempted by emphasizing the potential for severe consequences that may result from lack of treatment, such as homelessness, victimization, suicide, violence. However, critics argue that psychiatric treatment can also have severe consequences such as misdiagnosis, psychiatric assault and disabling drug side effects. A homeless person in Paris. ... Rather than surrender to US soldiers, the Mayor (Bürgermeister) of Leipzig Germany, committed suicide along with his wife and daughter on April 20, 1945. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Involuntary treatment is generally undertaken at the behest of family members. Supporters of involuntary treatment include mainstream organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the American Psychiatric Association. Involuntary treatment's biggest supporter in the United States is the Treatment Advocacy Center. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, founded in 1979 as the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, is an American non-profit national advocacy group for people affected by serious mental illnesses and their families. ... Due to the epidemic of medical errors, readers are cautioned to be aware that the American Psychiatric Association isnt immune to this. ... The Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC) is a United States nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting laws allowing Assisted Outpatient Commitment (AOC) for individuals, who either become dangerous due to the symptoms of untreated severe mental illness, or are deemed to be in need of treatment and incapable of making rational medical...

Anti-psychiatry groups, loosely allied with members of the psychiatric survivors movement, vigorously oppose involuntary treatment on civil rights grounds. Also, critics oppose involuntary treatment because of the significant potential for side effects, ranging from mild to severe structural brain damage, and because of its emphasis upon enforcing compliance via chemical restraints over practices aimed at achieving mental health. Critics, such as the New York Civil Liberties Union, have denounced the strong racial and socioeconomic biases in forced treatment orders.^[1][2] Beginning in the 1960s, a movement called anti-psychiatry claimed that psychiatric patients are not ill but are individuals that do not share the same consensus reality as most people in society. ... A number of people considered ill and needing treatment by specific psychiatrists or psychiatric doctrine in general do not perceive benefit from the services offered or forced upon them. ... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... Adverse effect, in medicine, is an abnormal, harmful, undesired and/or unintended side-effect, although not necessarily unexpected, which is obtained as the result of a therapy or other medical intervention, such as drug/chemotherapy, physical therapy, surgery, medical procedure, use of a medical device, etc. ... Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. ... Mental health is a term used to describe either a level of cognitive or emotional wellbeing or an absence of mental illness. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into American Civil Liberties Union. ... This article is about race as an intraspecies classification. ... Socioeconomics is the study of the social and economic impacts of any product or service offering, market intervention or other activity on an economy as a whole and on the companies, organization and individuals who are its main economic actors. ... For other uses, see Bias (disambiguation). ...

The Church of Scientology is also aggressively opposed to involuntary treatment, although its methods of dealing with mental disorders (e.g., Introversion Rundown) have led to tragedies such as the confinement and death of Lisa McPherson. Scientology cross Symbol Doctrine Practices Concepts People Public groups Organization Controversy The Church of Scientology is the largest organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. ... Doctrine Practices Concepts People Public groups Organization Controversy Lisa McPherson (born Lisa Skonetski, February 10, 1959–December 5, 1995) was a Scientologist who died of a pulmonary embolism while under the care of the Flag Service Organization (FSO), a branch of the Church of Scientology. ...

Methods

Psychiatric treatment primarily involves psychotropic medications, such as antidepressants, mood stabilizers, tranquillizers and 'anti-psychotic' or neuroleptic medication. These medications are generally considered effective by the medical community in treating severe and persistent mental illness [1] although they have common adverse side effects. Opponents of treatment point to other studies that suggest that long-range outcomes are much worse with treatment.[2] Involuntary treatment can also include commitment to a psychiatric ward and electroconvulsive therapy (also known as electroshock). A psychoactive drug or psychotropic substance is a chemical that alters brain function, resulting in temporary changes in perception, mood, consciousness, or behaviour. ... A recent form of antidepressant medication - Prozac Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, Venlafaxine An antidepressant, in the most common usage, is a psychiatric medication taken to alleviate clinical depression or dysthymia (milder depression). ... A mood stabilizer is a psychiatric medication used to treat mood disorders characterized by rapid and unstable mood shifts. ... A sedative is a drug that depresses the central nervous system (CNS), which causes calmness, relaxation, reduction of anxiety, sleepiness, slowed breathing, slurred speech, staggering gait, poor judgment, and slow, uncertain reflexes. ... The term antipsychotic is applied to a group of drugs used to treat psychosis. ... The term antipsychotic is applied to a group of drugs used to treat psychosis. ... Adverse effect, in medicine, is an abnormal, harmful, undesired and/or unintended side-effect, although not necessarily unexpected, which is obtained as the result of a therapy or other medical intervention, such as drug/chemotherapy, physical therapy, surgery, medical procedure, use of a medical device, etc. ... A psychiatric hospital (also called a mental hospital or asylum) is a hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. ... Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also known as electroshock, is a controversial psychiatric treatment in which seizures are induced with electricity. ...

Mental health law

Every state in the US allows for some form of involuntary treatment, although criteria vary.[3] Since the late 1990s, a growing number of states have adopted Assisted Outpatient Commitment (AOC) laws.[4] For the band, see 1990s (band). ...

Under 'assisted' outpatient commitment, people committed involuntarily can live outside the psychiatric hospital, sometimes under strict conditions including reporting to mandatory psychiatric appointments, taking psychiatric drugs in the presence of a nursing team, and proving medication blood levels. Forty-two states presently allow for outpatient commitment. [5] Outpatient commitment refers to mental health law which allows the compulsory, community-based treatment of individuals with mental illness. ... A psychiatric hospital (also called, at various places and times, mental hospital or mental ward), is a hospital specialising in the treatment of persons with mental illness. ...

Effects of involuntary medication

In some studies, the majority of people retrospectively agreed that involuntary medication had been in their best interest, with little or no consideration given to those who disagreed with their treatment. Anecdotal reports from opponents of involuntary medication, indicating that involuntary treatment has widespread, devastating, and lasting effects, are downplayed by studies cited by supporters, including TAC.[6] However, other studies cast much doubt on the efficacy of involuntary treatment.[7] Efficacy is the ability to produce a desired amount of a desired effect. ...

See also

• Anti-psychiatry
• E. Fuller Torrey
• Involuntary commitment – a long and detailed article dealing also with political imprisonment
• Laura's Law
• Medical ethics
• MindFreedom International
• New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
• Social control
• DSM-IV Codes
• Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID)

Beginning in the 1960s, a movement called anti-psychiatry claimed that psychiatric patients are not ill but are individuals that do not share the same consensus reality as most people in society. ... Edwin Fuller Torrey, M.D. (b. ... Involuntary commitment is the practice of using legal means or forms as part of a mental health law to commit a person to a mental hospital, insane asylum or psychiatric ward without their informed consent, against their will or over their protests. ... Lauras Law, (Assembly Bill 1421, Helen Thomson, Davis), which became effective on January 1, 2003, is a California statute that allows for court-ordered outpatient commitment of mental health clients who refuse voluntary treatment with psychotropic medications. ... Medical ethics is the study of moral values as they apply to medicine. ... A banner ad for MindFreedom International MindFreedom International is a coalition of over 100 grassroots groups and thousands of individual members in 14 nations committed to winning and protecting the human rights of people labeled with psychiatric disorders. ... President George W. Bush established the controversial President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in April, 2002, to conduct a comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system and make recommendations based on their findings. ... Social control refers to social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior, in terms of greater sanctions and rewards. ... The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual published by the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision, also known as DSM-IV-TR is a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association and includes all currently recognized mental health disorders. ... The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) is a semistuctured interview for making most of the major DSM-IV Axis I psychiatric diagnoses. ...

References

External links

• National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse
• Psychlaws.org - 'Keys to Commitment' (a guide for family members), Robert J. Kaplan, JD
• Rogers Law, concerning involuntary treatment/commitment in Massachusetts