Should Patients’ Boredom in Locked Inpatient Psychiatric Units Be Considered Iatrogenic Harm?

Link to the original article

Abstract

Patients often report experiencing boredom during inpatient psychiatry stays. Because patients’ vulnerabilities and conditions can be exacerbated when they feel bored, this article considers ethical dimensions of inpatient units’ designs that limit patients’ autonomy or access to activities or interactions with others. This commentary on a case also considers whether and how boredom should be considered an iatrogenic harm and influence discharge planning.

Read the entire article.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

• Carrie Tamarelli, MD is a hospital-based psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She primarily works with the general adult inpatient psychiatry service and electroconvulsive therapy program.

• Angela Cao is a medical student at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. She serves as a student advocate for underserved communities at the Phillips Neighborhood Clinic and through the Early Youth Eyecare Community Initiative of Phillips Eye Institute.

• Rebecca Grossman-Kahn, MD, MBA is a practicing emergency psychiatrist in St Paul, Minnesota. She earned a BA degree from Stanford University and MD and MBA degrees from the University of Michigan and completed psychiatry residency at the University of Minnesota. Her professional interests include medical education, forensic psychiatry, clinical ethics, and narrative medicine.