Psychotropic Drug Treatment Refusal by Competent Psychiatric Patients

REBECCA WEATHERHEAD

ABSTRACT

Psychotropic drugs are the only known effective medical treatment for schizophrenia. These drugs are capable of restoring patients suffering from severe delusions, hallucinations and anxiety to a near-normal state. Use of psychotropic drugs in the treatment of involuntarily committed mental patients has, however, given rise to serious problems. The major medical problem with the drugs is that they have serious side effects. The major legal problem is that patients refuse them. Examined in this paper is the legal problem of psychotropic drug-treatment refusal by competent psychiatric patients. Across most of North America, mental health legislation permits refusals by such patients to be overridden by mental health professionals. The author outlines the characteristics of the drugs, the ongoing debate over their forcible administration and the existing law in Canada. Finally, constitutional bases for a right to refuse are examined in light of the U.S. experience and the Charter.

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Citation: (1988) 47(1) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 101.
Copyright © 1988. University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review.
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