BACKGROUND When a patient is found to be lacking capacity to make a medical decision, the medical team is advised to turn to the patient's most appropriate surrogate decision maker (hereafter, surrogate) to make a choice on behalf of the patient. The assumption made by the medical team is that the surrogate will have the capacity to make appropriate medical decisions on behalf of the patient. At times though, the capacity of the surrogate himself may be called into question, leading to uncertainty in terms of how best to proceed in the care of the patient. Consultation-liaison psychiatrists are commonly consulted to assess a patient's capacity to make a particular medical decision, but their role assisting in cases of incapacitated surrogates is less clear. OBJECTIVE In this article, we summarize the existing literature and current state laws regarding incapacitated surrogates and propose guidelines for the role the consultation-liaison psychiatrist can take when the surrogate may be incapacitated.

中文翻译：

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无行为能力的代理人：咨询联络精神科医生的作用是什么？

背景技术当发现患者缺乏做出医疗决定的能力时，建议医疗团队求助于患者最合适的代理人决策者（以下简称代理人）代表患者做出选择。医疗团队做出的假设是代理人将有能力代表患者做出适当的医疗决定。但有时，代理人本人的能力可能会受到质疑，从而导致在如何最好地继续照顾患者方面存在不确定性。咨询联络精神科医生通常会被咨询以评估患者做出特定医疗决定的能力，但他们在协助无行为能力的代理人的情况下的作用不太清楚。目标在本文中，