{"id":3502,"date":"2026-04-20T18:48:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:49:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:49:44","slug":"ethical-issues-in-psychiatric-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502","title":{"rendered":"Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By James L. Levenson, MD, DLFAPA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Levenson reviewed ethical issues in the practice of psychiatry. Key issues included confidentiality, maintaining boundaries, managing dual roles and avoiding conflicts of interest, not abandoning patients, informed consent surrogate decision makers, involuntary treatment, and impaired health care professionals. &nbsp;He reviewed 2 approaches to medical ethics; one based on the 4 major principles and the other on virtue ethics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Levenson reviewed a number of clinical scenarios and questions posed by members of PSV as well as by psychiatric residents. Some of the issues discussed included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>When is it justified to breach confidentiality?\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What if ethics and the law are in conflict?\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Under what circumstances should an adult patient be forced to accept treatment? \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How should one proceed when a psychotic patient\u2019s surrogate decisionmaker is refusing consent for treatment?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Levenson also discussed the debate over physician-assistant suicide\/medical aid in dying. He urged consideration of important factors for both sides to consider.&nbsp; Good palliative care is not universally available, especially in rural areas.&nbsp; Terminally ill patients may be clinically depressed, and nonpsychiatric physicians are not trained in the diagnosis of depression, especially in medically complicated patients.&nbsp; He urged physicians not to automatically take a patient&#8217;s request literally since it may mean something else such as \u201cdoes anyone care about me\u201d, or \u201cI am too much of a burden on my family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By James L. Levenson, MD, DLFAPA Dr. Levenson reviewed ethical issues in the practice of psychiatry. Key issues included confidentiality, maintaining boundaries, managing dual roles and avoiding conflicts of interest, not abandoning patients, informed consent surrogate decision makers, involuntary treatment, and impaired health care professionals. &nbsp;He reviewed 2 approaches to medical ethics; one based on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-3502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-spring-2026"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Practice - PSV News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Practice - PSV News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By James L. Levenson, MD, DLFAPA Dr. Levenson reviewed ethical issues in the practice of psychiatry. Key issues included confidentiality, maintaining boundaries, managing dual roles and avoiding conflicts of interest, not abandoning patients, informed consent surrogate decision makers, involuntary treatment, and impaired health care professionals. &nbsp;He reviewed 2 approaches to medical ethics; one based on [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PSV News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-20T18:48:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-20T18:49:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ray Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/\",\"name\":\"PSV News\",\"description\":\"Psychiatric Society of Virginia Newsletters\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502\",\"name\":\"Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Practice - PSV News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-20T18:48:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-20T18:49:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b3ff623305ba59e337e22c31c9fc42e7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Practice\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b3ff623305ba59e337e22c31c9fc42e7\",\"name\":\"Ray Hall\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77c2e3f00618d6950c250a915344c15d9f601fb38bd861cae3882e3489cd7d18?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77c2e3f00618d6950c250a915344c15d9f601fb38bd861cae3882e3489cd7d18?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ray Hall\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Practice - PSV News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Practice - PSV News","og_description":"By James L. Levenson, MD, DLFAPA Dr. Levenson reviewed ethical issues in the practice of psychiatry. Key issues included confidentiality, maintaining boundaries, managing dual roles and avoiding conflicts of interest, not abandoning patients, informed consent surrogate decision makers, involuntary treatment, and impaired health care professionals. &nbsp;He reviewed 2 approaches to medical ethics; one based on [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502","og_site_name":"PSV News","article_published_time":"2026-04-20T18:48:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-20T18:49:44+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ray Hall","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/","name":"PSV News","description":"Psychiatric Society of Virginia Newsletters","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502#webpage","url":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502","name":"Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Practice - PSV News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-04-20T18:48:50+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-20T18:49:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b3ff623305ba59e337e22c31c9fc42e7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3502#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Practice"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b3ff623305ba59e337e22c31c9fc42e7","name":"Ray Hall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77c2e3f00618d6950c250a915344c15d9f601fb38bd861cae3882e3489cd7d18?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77c2e3f00618d6950c250a915344c15d9f601fb38bd861cae3882e3489cd7d18?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ray Hall"},"url":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?author=3"}]}},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ray Hall","author_link":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?author=3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}