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Published Online: 12 January 2021

Digital Technologies and Coercion in Psychiatry

Abstract

Psychiatry has a contentious history of coercion in the care of patients with mental illness, and legal frameworks often govern use of coercive interventions, such as involuntary hospitalization, physical restraints, and medication over objection. Research also suggests that informal coercion, including subtle inducements, leverage, or threats, is prevalent and influential in psychiatric settings. Digital technologies bring promise for expanding access to psychiatric care and improving delivery of these services; however, use and misuse of digital technologies, such as electronic medical record flags, surveillance cameras, videoconferencing, and risk assessment tools, could lead to unexpected coercion of patients with mental illness. Using several composite case examples, the author proposes that the integration of digital technologies into psychiatric care can influence patients’ experiences of coercion and provides recommendations for studying and addressing these effects.

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Published In

Go to Psychiatric Services
Go to Psychiatric Services
Psychiatric Services
Pages: 302 - 310
PubMed: 33430653

History

Received: 9 June 2020
Revision received: 14 July 2020
Accepted: 23 July 2020
Published online: 12 January 2021
Published in print: March 01, 2021

Keywords

  1. Involuntary commitment
  2. Risk assessment
  3. Coercion
  4. Digital technologies
  5. Videoconferencing
  6. Psychiatry

Authors

Details

Nathaniel P. Morris, M.D. [email protected]
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco.

Notes

Send correspondence to Dr. Morris ([email protected]).

Competing Interests

The author reports no financial relationships with commercial interests.

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