New Guidelines for Forensic Assessment

Abstract

The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) recently published guidelines for forensic assessment intended for psychiatrists and other clinicians working in medicolegal roles, or performing evaluations and offering opinions in relation to legal or regulatory matters. Although these guidelines do not establish a singular standard for forensic evaluation, they are intended to inform practice. Although nuances pertaining to any given case and the pertinent medicolegal issues involved will require professional judgment as to how best to conduct any particular evaluation, the guidelines do offer many helpful tenets and guiding principles that are broadly applicable. Psychiatrists and other clinicians performing forensic evaluations need to be aware of these guidelines and should strive to incorporate them as appropriate. In this column we offer a brief synopsis of the approach to the forensic psychiatric assessment based upon the AAPL Practice Guideline for the Forensic Assessment.

FINAL YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF MEDICO-LEGAL PROBLEMS: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY AT IBN SINA NATIONAL COLLEGE IN JEDDAH

“…In a retrospective review of medico-legal reports, many written by treating practitioners or even by medico-legal experts were incomplete. 6 This is consistent with the findings of other researches. 7,8 Researchers found a possible association between the duration of training and professional experience of the physicians, and the completeness of the reports.…”