["Informed consent" by the patient for publication of case reports. New guidelines by the "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors" (Vancouver Group)].

The "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors" has revised its guidelines regarding the protection of patients' rights to privacy in manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Information that might identify patients should not be published unless it is essential for scientific purposes and the patient has given written informed consent for publication after having been shown the manuscript to be published. This article discusses the new guidelines in the clinical context of psychiatry and psychotherapy. The ethical and legal problems raised concern (1) the informed consent process, (2) the content of scientific work and (3) the problem of third party consent (e.g. legal guardians).