Assessing patient's capacity to consent in mental health practice:A review / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Capacity assessment is of significant priority for medical treatment and clinical research invol-ving mental disorder patients,as to protect an individual's fundamental rights.Clinical judgment of individual's ca-pacity to consent most focus on medical situation,well-designed capacity assessment instruments should be used to support experienced clinical judgment.Capacity to consent can be adequately captured by measuring the constructs of understanding,appreciation,reasoning and communicating /expressing a choice.A large number of instruments designed by foreign developers to assess capacity to consent need validation and implementation in China,the in-strument designed by Chinese researchers has not been widely agreed.Establishing an effective capacity assessment instrument with psychometric properties (validity and reliability),which considering the clinical practice and culture background in china would be a breakthrough in methodology.