NCJ Number
119652
Journal
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (1989) Pages: 19-29
Date Published
1989
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Alcohol and drug abuses complicate medicolegal issues in psychiatry by blurring the boundaries between medicine and law.
Abstract
The usual tests for the applicability of either legal or medical measures often cannot be applied to the dual diagnosis of alcohol or drug abuse and mental illness. Specific quandaries arise with involuntary hospitalization and treatment, and with evaluating patients for the courts. These problems are discussed and the concept of State-dependent competency is introduced, using a case vignette to illustrate several points. Legal theories of behavior assume freedom of action; medical theories assume determinism. Phenomena of addiction defy such distinctions and thus may pose difficulties that cannot reliably be assigned either a medical or a legal remedy. 2 references. (Author abstract modified)