Ethical Issues and Ethical Problems in Psychiatry

Abstract

Psychiatry is a medical specialty that aims to understand, classify, prevent, treat disorders, and improve mental health. Medical ethics is a discipline that evaluates, analyzes, and discusses ethical principles in the field of medicine, examines the value issues that arise in medical practice, and establishes rules and norms. The relationship between psychiatry and ethics occupies a distinctive place in medical ethics due to the unique characteristics of psychiatry. Over the past century, developments in the psychiatric practices and treatments had increased remarkably. As psychiatric practices have advanced, the relationship between psychiatry and ethics has been increasingly discussed, leading to the development of specialized guidelines in this field. Advances in genetics, imaging, and pharmacology have made mental disorders more understandable, and developments in treatments have led to the evolution of ethical approaches in psychiatry. It seems very important to include ethical evaluation and approach issues in psychiatric education. In this chapter of the book, we summarized the history of psychiatry, the relationship between psychiatry and ethics, and ethical issues and ethical problems in psychiatry. The chapter contains a summary of highlights of clinical ethics approaches in psychiatry and suggests recommendations to guide psychiatrists and mental healthcare providers. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.