Consequences of surveillance of the forensic psychiatric examination: an overview

Lawyers have argued that surveillance of the forensic psychiatric examination (either direct observation by a lawyer or recording of the examination) is necessary under certain circumstances to protect clients' rights and ensure more accurate reporting of the findings. Psychiatrists are concerned that surveillance could disrupt such examinations and impair their validity. The author reviews and extrapolates from available data on the effects of tape recording on clinical examinations and psychotherapy and concludes that the current state of scientific knowledge does not allow confident assessment of whether the perceived need for surveillance outweighs the possible impairment of the validity of forensic psychiatric examinations.