Informed consent in child and adolescent psychiatry

Abstract

The informed consent process in children and adolescents carries an inherent complexity that does not appear when this process is performed in the adult. Prescribe psychiatric treatment for a minor not only do you need a diagnostic sensitivity, evolutionary and special ethics, but also requires the participation, cooperation and support of different people: the child or adolescent, parents, and sometimes other people or institutions that may influence the therapeutic decision. The interactions between all of them complicate, and perfect, the process of obtaining clinically valid informed consent. We can accept that there are three models of consent informed: the legal, the clinical and the bio-ethical.