The Woman who Wanted Electroconvulsive Therapy and Do-Not-Resuscitate Status. Questions of Competence on a Medical-Psychiatry Unit

The case history of an elderly woman who suffered from concurrent serious psychiatric & medical illnesses is presented. At initial presentation, the patient was passively suicidal. Ethical considerations concerning the patient’s treatment are discussed with special attention to her requests for both ECT & do-not-resuscitate status. This case illustrates a conflict between medical & psychiatric treatment goals & ethical traditions which will become more common as the population ages. (9 refs.)