The MacCAT-CR provides a structured format for capacity assessment that is adaptable to the particulars of any given research project. With the introduction of the MacCAT-CR, researchers enrolling human participants in their studieshave available for the first time a reliable and valid means of assessing their potential subject's capacity to consent to participation. The MacCAT-CR can typically be administered in 15-20 minutes. Beginning with project-specific disclosures to potential participants, the MacCAT-CR measures the four generally accepted components of decision-making competence: understanding, appreciation, reasoning, and the ability to express a choice. Quantification of subjects' responses permits comparisons across subjects and subject groups, and allows the MacCAT-CR to be used for not only for screening individual participants but also for conducting research on the characteristics of subject populations and for assessing the effectiveness of interventions designed to increase subjects' capacities.

This book offers a conceptual model for understanding the nature of legal competencies. The model is interpreted to assist mental health professionals in designing and performing assessments for legal competencies defined in criminal and civil law, and to guide research that will improve the practice of evaluations for legal competencies. A special feature is the book's evaluative review of specialized forensic assessment instruments for each of several legal competencies. Three-fourths of the 37 instruments reviewed in this second edition are new.

The MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment (MacCAT-T) is the product of an 8-year study of patients' capacities to make treatment decisions. It is a semi-structured interview that assists clinicians in assessing a patient's competence to consent to treatment. The process provides a patient with information about their medical/psychiatric condition, the type of treatment being recommended, its risks and benefits, as well as other possible treatments and their probable consequences. During this process, the MacCAT-T prompts the clinician to ask questions that assess the patient's understanding, appreciation, and reasoning regarding treatment decisions.The MacCAT-T Manual is a large-format, examiner-friendly field manual for conducting actual competency assessments. The MacCAT-T Record Form is well designed for recording, rating, and summarizing patient responses. The training videotape, Administering the MacCAT-T, demonstrates an actual administration of the test with discussion, comments, and annotations by Drs. Grisso and Appelbaum.The book, Assessing Competence to Consent to Treatment, describes the place of competence in the doctrine of informed consent, analyzes the elements of decision making, and shows how assessments of competence to consent to treatment can be conducted within varied general medical and psychiatric treatment settings. Includes numerous case studies.

While coordinating the University of Groningen’s Honours College Winterschool/Atelier entitled Children's Rights in Health Care, the need to publish the contributions to this program was generally expressed and confirmed by its participants. The Winterschool/Atelier, successfully organized in recent years, has dealt with many issues concerning the legal position of minor persons – born and unborn – in the context of health care, especially pediatric care. These issues involve matters concerning pediatric treatment, preventive care and predictive medicine, medical research involving children, incompetence and child autonomy, a child’s psychological development, parental responsibility and representation, protective judicial measures, child migration issues, children’s health rights enforcement as well as children’s health interest monitoring and promotion. During the program, leading experts in the fields of law, ethics, medicine, biology, psychology and institutions such as the Dutch Child & Hospital Foundation, the Child Protection Board, Save the Children, and UNICEF shared their views on normative standards, practical experiences, significant developments, challenging ideas, silent dreams and inevitable realities. As a result, the Children's Rights in Health Care program provided opportunities for a profound dialogue between Honours College students and lecturing scholars on a wide range of topics involving children’s health care interests. This volume contains several analyses of health rights issues related to children. The various chapters provide an overview of this captivating area and may be of special interest to lawyers, health care professionals, ethicists, psychologists, judicial institutions, policy makers, interest groups, students and all others who are concerned with the children’s rights perspective on health care.

Antipsychotic medications are a key treatment for schizophrenia and sales of antipsychotic drugs approach $20 billion per year, with fierce marketing between the makers of the drugs. The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health sponsored the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) project to provide independent information about the comparative effectiveness of medications. CATIE was the largest, longest and most comprehensive study of schizophrenia to date. Conducted under rigorous double-blind conditions, Antipsychotic Trials in Schizophrenia presents the definitive archival results of this landmark study. The core of the book consists of chapters focused on specific outcomes that set the CATIE findings in a wider context. Also included are chapters on the design, statistical analyses and implications for researchers, clinicians and policy makers. Psychiatrists, psychiatric researchers, mental health policy makers and those working in pharmaceutical companies will all find this to be essential reading.

Clinical Trials in Older Adults is the first book to consider the methodological issues underlying the evaluation of new treatments in older people. Provides information on the methodology, monitoring and regulations for those planning to conduct a clinical trials involving older adults Contains examples of ongoing trials involving older adults, and presents the main characteristics of many recently published Depicts how the issues regarding older adults in clinical trials could be properly addressed with the appropriate study design and conduct Identifies key issues in performing clinical trials in older patients with common geriatric conditions, i.e. Alzheimer’s dementia, depression, low muscle mass, cancer