Year: 2005 Source: Current Psychiatry, v.4, no.3, (March 2005), p.66 & 69. SIEC No: 20080150

Two American legal cases in which one patient died by suicide & another was the victim of homicide are reviewed in this article. In the case of suicide, the patient’s estate charged the psychiatrist was negligent & did not adequately evaluate or treat the patient when he was seen three years prior to his death. The jury found for the defense as no causal chain was established that would have led to the suicide being foreseeable. (7 refs.)