“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.”
– Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
An understanding of the difference between what is allowed or even recommended and what is ethical often is contemplated in the treatment of mental illness. Mental illnesses can impair judgment in patients confronted with complex decisions about their treatment. A provider, therefore, has to make a decision between respecting autonomy and/or engaging in what may be considered beneficent. While the line separating beneficent care and the respect for the autonomy of a patient may not be present, the question often arises – especially in inpatient care of patients with severe mental illness.
Dr. Nicolas Badre
In the inpatient units, I was taught to justify and be mindful of any removal of someone’s right. I learned the responsibility of stripping someone’s freedom. Not only would I find myself preventing someone from going where they wanted or from talking to whomever they wanted, but frequently, we involuntary injected patients with neuroactive chemicals. Those measures are used only in extreme circumstances: In most states, one has to be unable to provide themselves with food, clothing, or shelter secondary to mental illness to be subjected to such aggressive treatment.
Currently, the United States is seeing an increase in the focus on providing more treatment: an emphasis on beneficence over autonomy. This change can be witnessed in the passage of compulsory outpatient treatment laws. Those rulings, such as Laura’s Law in California and Kendra’s Law in New York, have been promoted in response to an increased concern over the consequences of untreated mental illness in crime. In this commentary, I present a case where I felt that despite being given the right and expectation to involuntary treat someone, I did not feel that it was ethical to involuntarily medicate him. (I have made appropriate changes to the patient’s case to maintain confidentiality.)
Our facility
The Psychiatric Stabilization Unit (PSU) of the San Diego Jails is a 30-bed acute psychiatric unit. We serve the 4,500 male inmates and one of the largest mental health systems in the county. The vast majority (from 70% to 90% at any one time) of patients suffer from a psychotic illness, and more than 50% have a comorbid substance use disorder. Contrary to most inpatient units, we do not have pressure from insurance or utilization review to regularly change dosages or medications, and we do not have significant pressure to discharge patients within a certain time frame. The unit serves very disenfranchised patients with most being homeless prior to their arrest and many having no emergency contact or social support of any sort. The unit is staffed by one attending psychiatrist and two therapists. We are subjected to the same involuntary commitment and involuntary medication laws as are community psychiatric hospitals, but we get a significant number of patients under court orders.
The patient presented in this case came under such court order for restoration of his competency to stand trial. In the United States, one cannot stand trial unless competent. Competency is defined as one’s ability to take a meaningful or active part in a trial, the capacity to understand laws, the capacity to understand personal responsibility, the ability to express a plea, and the capability to instruct legal counsel. When patients are found incompetent, they commonly get court ordered to an unit like the PSU with a court order that they cannot understand the risk, benefits, and alternatives of psychotropic treatment and thus can be involuntarily medicated. Often, including in this case, the court order will mention that the patient will not become competent without treatment, including involuntary antipsychotics.
Overview of the case
George is a 50-year-old white male without psychiatric history. He had never been hospitalized psychiatrically voluntarily or involuntarily. He has never engaged in outpatient psychiatric care, has never taken psychotropic medication, and has never been diagnosed with mental illness. He mentions no prior episode of self-harm, suicidality, or suicide attempt. He occasionally drinks alcohol and has smoked marijuana on a few occasions. He despises other drugs, saying that they are “dangerous.” He mentions that his parents had “difficult personalities” but denies any knowledge of them having formal mental illness.