Assessment of the Capacity to Express Informed Consent for Organ Donation in Patients With Schizophrenia

• NCJ Number: 231215
• Journal: Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 55 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2010 Pages: 669-676
• Author(s): Maria Civita De Marco, M.D.; Gabriele Sani, M.D.; Giovanni Manfredi, M.D.; Isabella Pacchiarotti, M.D.; Valeria Savoja, M.D.; Andrea Balbi, M.D.; Lorenzo Mazzarini, M.D.; Adriana Borriello, Ph.D.; Giorgio D. Kotzalidis, M.D.; Roberti Tatarelli, M.D.; Paolo Girardi, M.D.; Stefano Ferracuti, M.D.
• Date Published: May 2010
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In Italy, the "silent-consent" principle of donor's willingness regulates organ donation for postmortem transplantation, but civil incompetence excludes it. This study investigated decisional capacity for organ donation for transplantation of 30 controls and 30 nonincompetent patients with schizophrenia as related to clinical symptoms, cognition, and functioning.

Abstract

Assessments were carried out through the Competence for Donation Assessment Scale (CDAS), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, Life Skills Profile (LSP), Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Rey RI, Rey RD, and Visual Search. Patients and controls differed on the CDAS Understanding and Choice Expression areas. Patients showed significant inverse bivariate correlations between CDAS Understanding and scores on total BPRS, LSP self-care scale, and RCPM cognitive test. Our results show that decisional capacity for participating in research does not predict decisional capacity for postmortem organ donation in patients with schizophrenic or schizoaffective psychosis; hence, before judging consent for donation, patients must be provided with enhanced information to better understand this delicate issue. 2 tables, 63 references, and appendix (Published Abstract)