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Duties of psychiatrists: treat the patient or protect the public?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Gwen Adshead
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In this paper I will be discussing the professional duties of psychiatrists. I will argue that there is an ethical tension at the heart of psychiatric practice – between the psychiatrist's professional duties to his or her patient, and what professional duties there might be to protect public safety. It may be of some comfort to clinicians to know that this tension has exercised the best minds for centuries, including thinkers such as Marcus Aurelius nearly 800 years ago (Spruit, 1998).

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment , Volume 5 , Issue 5 , September 1999 , pp. 321 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 1999 

References

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