Article of Note - Decision-making Capacity and Consent

Documentation of decision-making capacity, informed consent, and health care proxies: a study of surrogate consent.
Glezer A, Stern TA, Mort EA, Atamian S, Abrams JL, Brendel RW.
Psychosomatics. 2011 Nov-Dec;52(6):521-9.

While this article deals with documentation of health care proxies and assessments of capacity related to consent for medical care, it has implications for research involving participants with diminished capacity to consent. The authors, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, found that the medical records of the majority (76%) of patients did not have documentation of a health care proxy when a proxy provided consent for the patient. They also found that while the mental status of all patients was assessed prior to the procedure, documentation regarding the assessment of decision-making capacity was often lacking.

Link to abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22054621  accessed 2/1/2012