Germany without Coercive Treatment in Psychiatry—A 15 Month Real World Experience

Martin Zinkler
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Martin Zinkler: Kliniken Lankreis Heidenheim gGmbH, Academic Teaching Hospital of Ulm University, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Schlosshaustr. 100, 89522 Heidenheim, Germany

Laws, 2016, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Coercive treatment with antipsychotic drugs was commonly used in German psychiatric institutions until it became a topic of substantial medical, legal and ethical controversy. In 2011 and 2012, several landmark decisions by Germany’s Constitutional Court and Federal Supreme Court challenged this practice in all but life-threatening emergencies. In March 2013, the new legal provisions governing coercive treatment took effect allowing coercive medication under stricter criteria. While mainstream psychiatry in Germany resumed the use of coercive medication, although less frequently than before 2012, there are examples where clinicians put an even greater emphasis on consensual treatment and did not return to coercive treatment. Data from a case study in a local mental health service suggest that the use of coercive medication could be made obsolete.

Keywords: coercive treatment; human rights; psychiatry; Germany; constitutional court; UN convention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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