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Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2005) 11: 330-337
© 2005 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Healing ourselves: ethical issues in the care of sick doctors

Gwen Adshead

Gwen Adshead is a consultant psychotherapist for West London Mental Health Trust (Psychotherapy Department, Broadmoor Hospital, Crowthorne, Berkshire RG45 7EG, UK. E-mail: gwen.adshead{at}wlmht.nhs.uk). She is also a member of the Fitness to Practise Panel at the General Medical Council and Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The views expressed here are the author’s and do not represent the views of the official bodies for whom she works.

In this paper I review some of the ethical dilemmas that arise when psychiatrists are involved in the assessment and treatment of medical colleagues. Special attention needs to be paid to the context of the relationship between the psychiatrist and the doctor-patient, and to the extent to which the patient is seeking help voluntarily or at the request of a third party. Psychiatrists may find themselves uncertain about how to meet the ethical demands of their duties to the patient and their duties to the public, when these conflict.