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If a fully licensed psychiatrist in the USA wanted to open a private practice with the intention of doing only psychotherapy, would they be at potential risk for a malpractice lawsuit for NOT medically diagnosing or treating a patient?
I'm talking about a situation where the patient is informed up front and agrees to a treatment relationship that is psychotherapy-only.
Trying to think of hypothetical examples here:
-I'm seeing a pt for therapy, someone else is prescribing Lithium. I see signs of subtle toxicity during our therapy session, or the patient tells me that their last trough was 1.4 and they didn't change their dose, but I only tell them "ask your prescribing MD about it." It falls through the cracks and something bad happens. Possible that I could be found at fault?
-A patient who has a history of doing something violent when off an antipsychotic discloses to me during a therapy session that they are off an antipsychotic, and don't currently have a prescribing provider. Doing ok at the moment they disclose the med non-compliance. I decline to refill the medicine, they stop showing up, proceed to get psychotic over the next month, hurt someone. Could I be held liable for declining to refill a medication?
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