The professional responsibilities of psychiatric staff

The question of medical liability in psychiatry has special implications due to the nature and intrinsic aspects of the discipline itself. Following a brief description of the laws regulating the protection of the mentally ill in our country, authors discuss the responsibilities of different professional figures involved in the management of psychiatric patients, both within and out of hospital contexts as well as when legal implications (civil and penal) need to be dealt with. Special attention is addressed to the issue of relaps in the patient's condition and what this entails in terms of medical liability for health care that takes on "guarantor's position". Medical liability occurs at times of diagnosis, therapy or prognosis and in special conditions such as drug treatment, psychotherapy and constriction. Authors also analyse the ethical and deontological problems tied to consenting of medical procedures.