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Criteria for Involuntary Hospitalization
Yorihiko Kumasaka, MD;
Janet Stokes, MA;
Raj K. Gupta, LLM
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1972;26(5):399-404.
Abstract
Seven to eight lawyers have been actively involved in the decisionmaking of involuntary hospitalization at Bellevue Psychiatric Division in New York City since 1965. The result has been a dramatic increase of discharge rate among those patients who requested a court hearing, reaching as high as 50% in 1969. Controlled clinical evaluation reveals that "protection" and "dangerousness" are two major working criteria of involuntary hospitalization and need of psychiatric treatment is of secondary importance. Although discharged patients may have foregone a chance to receive treatment, the essential question of how substantial such therapeutic benefit would have been still remains unanswered.
Author Affiliations
New York
From the Department of Psychiatry, New York University and the Hospitalization Research Unit, Bellevue Hospital, New York.
Footnotes
Accepted for publication Dec 23, 1970.
Reprint requests to Psychiatric Division, Bellevue Hospital, First Ave and 30th St, New York 10016 (Dr. Kumasaka).
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
Decision to Seek Commitment: Psychiatric Decision Making in a Legal Context
Appelbaum and Hamm
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1982;39:447-451.
ABSTRACT
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