Mental capacity to consent to treatment and the association with outcome: a longitudinal study in patients with anorexia nervosa.
BJPsych Open
; 3(3): 147-153, 2017 May.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28584660
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Relevance of diminished mental capacity in anorexia nervosa (AN) to course of disorder is unknown.AIMS:
To examine prognostic relevance of diminished mental capacity in AN.METHOD:
A longitudinal study was conducted in 70 adult female patients with severe AN. At baseline, mental capacity was assessed by psychiatrists, and clinical and neuropsychological data (decision-making) were collected. After 1 and 2 years, clinical and neuropsychological assessments were repeated, and remission and admission rates were calculated.RESULTS:
People with AN with diminished mental capacity had a less favourable outcome with regard to remission and were admitted more frequently. Their appreciation of illness remained hampered. Decision-making did not improve, in contrast to people with full mental capacity.CONCLUSIONS:
People with AN with diminished mental capacity seem to do less well in treatment and display decision-making deficiencies that do not ameliorate with weight improvement. DECLARATION OF INTEREST None. COPYRIGHT AND USAGE © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2017. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Language:
En
Year:
2017
Type:
Article