AMA Journal of Ethics^®

This commentary considers how to manage agitation in patients with dementia.

Dr Uma Suryadevara joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Drs Alex Rollo, Jeena Kar, and Mary Camp: “Should Antipsychotics’ Risks Be Accepted by Clinicians on Behalf of Patients to Achieve Benefits of Mitigating Older Adults’ Behavioral Symptoms in Short-Staffed Units?” 

For dying patients and their loved ones to make informed decisions, physicians must share adequate information about prognoses, prospective benefits and harms of specific interventions, and costs.

When clinicians engage surrogates in video calls showing the patient’s body, several competing ethical questions must be considered.

Dr Laura Kolbe joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Drs Ryan H. Nelson, Joelle Robertson-Preidler, Olivia Schuman, and Inmaculada de Melo-Martín: “Is a Video Worth a Thousand Words?”

For some patients whose survival is extended by disease-modifying interventions, little guidance about clinical and ethical complexities exist.

Guidance about sedation to unconsciousness and medically ineffective interventions can be applied to surgical palliation.

Drs Michael Young, Robert Regenhardt, and Leonard Sokol join Ethics Talk to discuss their article, coauthored with Dr Thabele Leslie-Mazwi: "When Should Neuroendovascular Care for Patients With Acute Stroke Be Palliative?"

Lack of ethical, legal, and clinical consensus about best practice sometimes combines with a poor clinical evidence base.

Hospital lawyers’ practices shape risk management operations, influence clinicians’ morale, and affect patient care.