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From Bibles To Biomarkers: The Future Of The Dsm And Forensic Psychiatric Diagnosis, Teneille R. Brown Jan 2015

From Bibles To Biomarkers: The Future Of The Dsm And Forensic Psychiatric Diagnosis, Teneille R. Brown

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Given its importance to the law, it is regrettable that judges and lawyers do not fully understand how the DSM is constructed, and the bedrock of values on which it rests. As evidence of this, lawyers and judges often refer to the DSM as the “psychiatric bible.” This language is both fascinating and perplexing. This Article will attempt to correct the notion that the DSM is a legal “psychiatric bible” by explaining how it is created and used by the medical field. It will also provide a few reasons why the law may have come to view it as a …


Risk Management And Conflicts Of Interest, Leslie P. Francis Jan 2015

Risk Management And Conflicts Of Interest, Leslie P. Francis

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Risk management aims to reduce the costs of adverse events. In entities such as hospitals, risk managers do this in two ways: reducing the likelihood or seriousness of adverse events and reducing the costs of these events when they do happen. Activities aimed at the latter present direct conflicts of interest between protecting the institution and respecting the interests of the clients served by the institution—so-called institutional conflicts of interest. Activities aimed at the former would appear to benefit all parties--those at risk of accidents (because the risk is reduced) and the institution (because reducing risks also reduces the costs …


Denying Death, Teneille R. Brown Jan 2015

Denying Death, Teneille R. Brown

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Terminal cancer patients are being kept in the dark about the purpose of their care. Several studies show that these patients undergo expensive and painful interventions because they are holding out hope for a cure, even when their physicians know that a cure is very unlikely. The current Medicare reimbursement system encourages this false hope by incentivizing physicians to medicate and operate on patients, rather than to talk about whether or why to do these things. Our culture also encourages this false hope by treating cancer as a war that must be won. As a result, patients are admitted to …