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Legal and Ethical Challenges in the Psychiatric Treatment of College Students

  • Complex Medical-Psychiatric Issues (MB Riba, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This article will examine issues of autonomy, privacy, decision-making, and voluntariness of the psychiatric treatment of college students. There is little consensus on balancing the individual student’s rights with the university’s duties. Conflicts between federal legislation, case law, and ethical recommendations will be explored.

Recent Findings

Landmark legal cases assert that universities have a specific duty to protect their students from both violent peers and suicide.

Summary

College students are vulnerable to a range of psychiatric symptoms but have low rates of adherence to psychiatric treatment. Many institutions require an urgent psychiatric evaluation when there is evidence that a student is at imminent risk of danger, and some may require psychiatric treatment as a condition of returning to either classes or dormitories. Legally, patients are entitled to privacy and autonomous medical decision-making at 18 years of age. Pragmatically, dependence on parents and university for basic resources limits both the privacy and the voluntariness of their treatment.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Michelle Riba, M.D., M.S., from the University of Michigan, Rebecca Weintraub Brendel; M.D., J.D. from the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics; Mildred Solomon, Ed.D. from the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics; and Christine Mitchell, R.N., M.S., M.T.S., from the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics. The editors would like to thank Dr. Victor Schwartz for taking the time to review this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Rachel Conrad

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  1. Rachel Conrad
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Correspondence to Rachel Conrad.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Complex Medical-Psychiatric Issues

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Conrad, R. Legal and Ethical Challenges in the Psychiatric Treatment of College Students. Curr Psychiatry Rep 22, 50 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-020-01168-x

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