ABSTRACT
The important legal aspects that confront a mental health professional while dealing with psychiatric emergencies are obtaining consent for treatment and involuntary admission of the patient. One should resort to involuntary hospitalization/admission only as an emergency psychiatric intervention, when other less restrictive means of treatment are not appropriate. Informed consent is not only a legal and ethical requirement, good clinical practice also suggests that it should be obtained from all patients before they are started on treatment. The other important legal and ethical issues to be kept in mind in the emergency setting are those of therapeutic privilege and waiver. In certain psychiatric emergencies, the psychiatrist may be left with no choice but to seclude and restrain the patient. The general rules of confidentiality guiding other aspects of psychiatry apply to psychiatric emergencies too. The physicians and psychiatrists working in the emergency set-up should be aware of the legal issues involved in dealing with these patients in emergency situations.
