ABSTRACT
The benefits of covert treatment are uncontroversial and plainly outweigh the disadvantages in the circumstances. Following Covert treatment in the shadow of the threats to reputation, employment and liberty seems immediately an unattractive prospect, even when executed with good intentions. Covert treatment of an adult with capacity is unlawful because there is no consent. Covert treatment of incapacitated adults is probably regularly and frequently practised and justified by the practitioners as in the patients’ best interests. But reported cases are very rare and consequently little instruction on the subject is available. The patient's recurrent episodes of bombastic ‘hypomania’ were eventually diagnosed as temporal lobe epilepsy, and anticonvulsant therapy coincided with cessation of these attacks. While the relevant regulators accepted that from the clinicians’ perspective this covert treatment was lawful, those governing the hospital sought a formal undertaking from the doctor that the practice of covert medication would not be repeated.
