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ICU psychosis and patient autonomy: some thoughts from the inside.

Misak C

Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, 215 Huron Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A2, Canada. cheryl.misak@utoronto.ca

I shall draw on my experience of being an ICU patient to make some practical, ethical, and philosophical points about the care of the critically ill. The recurring theme in this paper is ICU psychosis. I suggest that discharged patients ought to be educated about it; I discuss the obstacles in the way of accurately measuring it; I argue that we must rethink autonomy in light of it; and I suggest that the self disintegrates in the face of it.

Published 20 July 2005 in J Med Philos, 30(4): 411-30.
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