Law & Psychiatry: Twenty-Five Years of Law and Psychiatry

Dr. Appelbaum reviews the past 25 years of the Law & Psychiatry column, of which he has been the editor since the column's initiation by John Talbott, M.D. The column has included contributions from Dr. Appelbaum as well as from various other mental health professionals and lawyers with various specializations. Citation of the column in other articles suggests that it is meeting a need for timely description and analysis of major legal developments that affect the field of psychiatry and psychiatric patients. Dr. Appelbaum notes that the 104 columns published thus far reflect the evolution of legal concerns in psychiatry as well as the presence of core issues that have remained unchanged. He raises the question of what the next quarter century will hold, positing that mental health law will continue to reflect a tension between the interests of persons with mental illness and the public's fear of such individuals.