Involuntary administration of medication in the community: the judicial opportunity.

In a state in which patient refusal of antipsychotic medication in all nonemergency situations must be respected, lawyers and psychiatrists in western Massachusetts have employed probate court decisions as involuntary outpatient treatment orders. The legal, administrative, and clinical issues in sustaining court-ordered outpatient treatment are discussed by focusing on case examples demonstrating some successes, some challenges, and some failures. Judicially sanctioned involuntary outpatient treatment presents an alternative model to statutorily based outpatient commitment.