Psychotropic Medication: Court Finds Grounds For Involuntary Administration
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
June 1998
Quick Summary: The patient refused to take her psych medication, and she could not articulate a reasoned decision for her refusal.
She did not understand the risk/benefit analysis. She had never before complained of side effects. She merely stated she was not a a mental case.
APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS, 1998. A patient was ordered held involuntarily for ninety days for mental health treatment. Treatment was to include involuntary administration of psychotropic medication. The medication was not specifically identified in the court record.A petition was filed in court on the patient’s behalf to contest this disposition. The county circuit court ruled in favor of the involuntary hold and involuntary administration of medication, and the Appellate Court of Illinois agreed with the circuit court.
The patient was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. She was arrested for assault but was not competent to stand trial.
During her involuntary hospital stay less restrictive alternatives such as group and individual therapy were tried, but did not bring the patient out of her isolative, disruptive and aggressive behavior, the court noted.
The most telling fact for the court was that the patient’s illness had apparently deprived her of the ability to make her own reasoned decision whether or not to take her medication.
In re Dorothy W., 692 N.E. 2d 388 (Ill. App., 1998).