How Should Long-Term Psychotherapy Address Ethical Questions During the Palliative Care of a Patient With Serious and Persistent Mental Illness?

Abstract

This commentary on a case considers the course of a palliative approach to care of a patient with a serious and persistent mental illness. Supposing a psychiatrist and patient mutually agree that the patient's chronic refractory illness should be palliatively managed with long-term psychotherapy, the next step is to forecast possible ethical questions that can arise during the course of such care and to share decision making about how to respond to those questions.