informed consent
Legal and ethical process ensuring patients and families understand treatment risks, benefits, and alternatives before agreeing to intervention.
Full Definition
Informed consent in child and adolescent psychiatry involves providing age-appropriate information about proposed treatments, including potential risks, benefits, alternatives, and expected outcomes, to enable informed decision-making. The process is complicated in pediatric settings by developmental considerations and legal requirements regarding parental consent and adolescent assent. For younger children, parents provide consent while children provide developmentally appropriate assent. Adolescents may have independent consent rights for mental health treatment depending on state laws. The informed consent process must address medication effects, therapy goals and methods, confidentiality limitations, and mandatory reporting requirements. Documentation of informed consent is essential for legal protection and ethical practice standards.
Usage
Usage note: Distinguish between 'consent' (from legal guardians) and 'assent' (from minors) in pediatric settings.
In Context
- "The psychiatrist obtained informed consent from the parents and assent from the 14-year-old patient before initiating antidepressant medication." — Treatment documentation