Volume 43, Issue 3 (May 1998)

Ethics, Malingering, and a Lie-Detector at the Bedside

A psychiatric consultation is presented in which the physician uses a cardiac monitor in the manner of a lie-detector. Ethical analysis of a clinician's duties in cases of suspected malingering addresses both the standard of informed consent necessary for such assessments and the potential forensic consequences of unanticipated clinical findings.