Suicide Malpractice

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Careless Assisted Suicide - A Potential Exception to the Principle of this Blog

If assisted suicide is unlawful, the tort may be per se (automatic), and intentional, subject to exemplary damages.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

About 4% of Patients on Anti-Depressants Will Get Agitated

It should happen the first day or two. The patient should stop the medication.

Risperidone Reduces Suicidality When Added to Anti-depressants

One should think of suicidality either as a delusion or as a state of agitation. Both are targets for tranquilizers.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Berkeley Gets a Taste of Its Own Left Wing Medicine from a Freak

The town should have fought this to the death. Instead they caved in. The compliance program will cost it far more than the settlement. That life was worth less than zero. Not only was it unproductive, it generated massive costs in injuries to others, and disruption of ordinary life. The death resulted in a financial benefit.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Murderer Potential Suicider

Not a great distance to travel. One wonders if the suspect has serious childhood behavior problems associated with conduct disorder. When such children grow up and get any form of power, the damage they do can be greatly magnified.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Suicider Kills His Family, and Now Fraud Allegations

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Cheap Psychiatric Care is Deadly Psychiatric Care

This level of shoddiness is coming to the USA, if it is not already here.

The Mission of Suicide Malpractice Blog

To end lawsuits for suicide because they contradict the modern, multi-factorial understanding of the causes of suicide, and indirectly hurt many unseen patients. The sole claim for suicide with merit involves assisting the suicide in violation of law.

This site is for defendants and defense lawyers in suicide malpractice suits, to improve defense expert testimony, perhaps to reduce losses in adverse settlements or verdicts.

These settlements and judgments devastate the practice of psychiatry. They cause the needless incarceration of thousands of suicidal patients without proof of benefit. The resulting defensive treatments consume a large fraction of the budget for wasteful treatment and starve proven preventive measures. These lawsuits are also morally wrong. They extort money from the party least influential in the many factors causing the suicide of the victim, the clinician trying to help. If they continue, the most suicidal and neediest patients will be avoided.

Explaining modern, multi-factorial understanding of the causes of suicide in plain language may result in more common sense judgments from jurors. The defendant may also prosecute, with licensing boards and in court, attorneys promulgating "junk science." The frivolous, malpractice lawsuit, because of profound, indirect impact on medical costs and life threatening errors, is another serious ethical lapse.

In systems closed to attorneys (e.g. the military), the rate of suicide may be cut by a large fraction reliably, quickly, at almost no additional expense.