On being 'too crazy' to sign into a mental hospital: the issue of consent to psychiatric
hospitalization.
S. K. Hoge,
Bull. Amer. Acad. Psychiatry & the Law
22(3): 431-50, 1994.
This article examines the notion of informed consent to psychiatric hospitalization. While dicta in
a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Zinermon v. Burch, has stimulated considerable interest in
applying informed consent to psychiatric hospitalization decisions, there are no extant cases that
define the contours of the doctrine in the hospitalization context. The potential scope of disclosure
and the level of decision-making capacity sufficient for valid consent are examined. A model of
consent to admission recommended by the American Psychiatric Association Task Force on Consent
to Voluntary Hospitalization is critiqued.