Research into emergency treatments--could the offer of 'advance directives' help?

Research into emergency treatments--could the offer of 'advance directives' help?

New research on psychiatric advance directives

Background Psychiatric advance directives (PADs) provide a legal means for competent individuals to refuse or consent to future mental health treatment during periods of decisional incapacity. Previous studies have shown high potential demand for PADs but low rates of completion in the United States, despite new laws authorizing PADs in over 20 states. This paper reports the results of the firs...

Beyond competence: advance directives in dementia research

Dementia is highly prevalent and incurable. The participation of dementia patients in clinical research is indispensable if we want to find an effective treatment for dementia. However, one of the primary challenges in dementia research is the patients' gradual loss of the capacity to consent. Patients with dementia are characterized by the fact that, at an earlier stage of their life, they wer...

Do Advance Directives Direct?

Resolution of long-standing debates about the role and impact of advance directives - living wills and powers of attorney for health care - has been hampered by a dearth of appropriate data, in particular data that compare the process and outcomes of end-of-life decision making on behalf of patients with and without advance directives. Drawing on a large ethnographic study of patients in two in...

Advance directives and older people: ethical challenges in the promotion of advance directives in New Zealand.

In New Zealand an advance directive can be either an oral statement or a written document. Such directives give individuals the opportunity to make choices about future medical treatment in the event they are cognitively impaired or otherwise unable to make their preferences known. All consumers of health care have the right to make an advance directive in accordance with the common law. When w...