Current opinion in psychiatry
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Curr Opin Psychiatry · Jan 2017
ReviewMedical assistance in dying: special issues for patients with mental illness.
Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) is now legal in many jurisdictions for competent adults who have intolerable suffering and/or have a terminal illness with a short prognosis. Mental illness can be a source of suffering for these individuals, but it can also affect their capacity to make medical decisions. Clinicians, and psychiatrists in particular, need to understand how to assess patients with mental illness who are requesting MAID, to determine the impact of their mental illness on the MAID request. ⋯ MAID represents an ethical and clinical challenge for psychiatrists in a variety of ways. As more jurisdictions legalize MAID, the psychiatric community will need to be prepared to meet these challenges with robust clinical standards and educational programs to ensure the highest standards of care for patients.