• Informed Consent &
  Malpractice
• Employment Litigation
  ADA - Disability - Sexual Misconduct
  Discrimination - Worker's Compensation
• Emotional &
  Physical Damages
  Conscious Pain & Suffering
  Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  Neuropsychiatry and Brain Imaging
• Standards for Experts
• Product Liability
  Medical Devices & Pharmaceuticals
  Toxic Tort
• Criminal Justice &
  Public Safety
  Diminished Capacity - Drug Addiction
  Competency to Confess
  Death Penalty Mitigation
  Workplace Safety
• Family & Custody Issues
• Testamentary &
  Contractual Capacity
• Professional &
  Organizational Ethics
  Patient Care - Managed Care - Privacy
• Psychoanalysis &
  Cultural Perspectives

Emotional & Physical Damages

Forensic psychiatrists evaluate the validity of psychological and emotional damages by way of providing data for the finder of fact as to causation and damages across the spectrum of civil litigation ranging from negligence to employment related issues.

• The Role of a Forensic Psychiatrist in Legal Proceedings

  A description of forensic psychiatry and the in-depth process that is entailed regarding civil and criminal cases. This process includes the presentation of the validity of emotional and physical damages as determined by a forensic evaluation, which differs significantly from that of a treating clinician.

• New Developments in the Role of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Civil and Criminal Law

  A Case of Medical Malpractice Illustrates the Growing Importance of Informed Consent

• Supervisory Negligence Litigation in Context

  The authors discuss damages which are attributed at least in part to the negligence of workplace supervisors.

• National Certification for Forensic Psychiatrists:  A Preview of the Post-Daubert Expert

  An examination of the admissibility of scientific testimony in court, an important issue in the education of judges and juries as claims of emotional, medical, and psychological damages may sound dubious to the non-expert.

• U.S. Supreme Court Rules About Standards In Expert Witness Post-Daubert
• Article: Massachusetts Federal District Court Applies Kumho Tire to Exclude Plaintiffs' Expert Testimony on 'Hedonic' Damages
  
  See also:
  • Case: Mayotte M. Jones v. Metro West, Inc.
  • Case: Kumho Tire Co., Ltd. v. Carmichael
  • Case: General Electric Co. v. Joiner
  • Article: Daubert Without Prejudice: Achieving Relevance and Reliability Without Randomness
  • Case: Doe v. Doe. Expert Testimony & Workman's Compensation

Conscious Pain and Suffering

Claims of conscious pain and suffering may be difficult to support. The task of the forensic psychiatrist in such cases is to reconstruct the state of mind along scientifically acceptable principles. The following cases demonstrate the forensic psychiatric evaluation of conscious pain and suffering.

• Case: Nonaka v. D'Urso
• Article: In Treating Patients for Pain, a Racial Gap.
• Article: Persistent Pain and Well-being. Persistent pain was a commonly reported health problem among primary care patients and was consistently associated with psychological illness across centers. Large variation in frequency and the inconsistent relationship between persistent pain and disability across centers suggests caution in drawing conclusions about the role of culture in shaping responses to persistent pain when comparisons are based on patient samples drawn from a limited number of health care settings in each culture.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The courts recognize Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a type of damages. The cause and effects of PTSD must be distinguished from causes and effects of other symptoms or conditions. Therefore, the presence of PTSD can be verified or disclaimed only by a trained evaluator. The following cases used forensic psychiatric testimony to support or refute claims of PTSD related injury.

• Case: deVries, et al. vs Secaucus Fire Department, et al. A landmark civil rights verdict in a case alleging a town's politicians' failure to protect a gay couple who were harassed and eventually driven out of their home next to a fire station in Secaucus. Dr. Bursztajn served as the plaintiffs' attorneys' retained testifying expert regarding causation, the nature and extent of the emotional injuries and standards for reliability and validity for an forensic psychiatric Independent Medical Examination.
• In the last decade, researchers have convincingly demonstrated that psychological stress can increase vulnerability to disease and have begun to understand how that might occur in The Heavy Cost of Chronic Stress. The New York Times, December 17, 2002.
• Case: Meador v. Sidney Stahler, M.D. and Ruben Gheridian, M.D.
• Case: Nonaka v. D'Urso
• Case: Loukia Panas and Nicholas Panas v. John Harakis and K-Mart Corporation. Dr. Bursztajn's testimony is cited in this New Hampshire Supreme Court decision from 1987.
• Case: Jamie Claborn Drewry v. Phillip Harwell, M.D.
• Article: Vinal v. New England Telephone: Admission of PTSD Psychophysiologic Test Results in a Civil Trial.
• Article: Melatonin Therapy: From Benzodiazapine-Dependent Insomnia to Authenticity and Autonomy
• Article: When Post-Traumatic Stress Grips Youth
• Article: Childhood Abuse and Adult Stress. A study links trauma, depression and response to anxiety.
• Article: Low Cortisol and Risk for PTSD in Adult Offspring of Holocaust Survivors
• International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies PTSD Treatment Guidelines
• Expert Consensus Guidelines: Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• Gift from Within is an International private non-profit organization for survivors dedicated to those who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Dr. Bursztajn's pro bono work dealing with PTSD

• Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network
  • Case: A recent successful asylum case Dr. Bursztajn testified in.
  • Documents of Interest from the PHR Library:
    • Istanbul Protocol. The first set of international guidelines for documentation of torture and its consequences.
    • Examining Asylum Seekers. This manual is intended to provide medical professionals with the information necessary to conduct these potentially life-saving evaluations.
• Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights at Boston Medical Center. A resource for refugees and torture victims seeking asylum.

Historical Context:

• Article: Holocaust Survivors at Higher Risk for All Cancers. Jewish survivors of World War II who were potentially exposed to the Holocaust are at a higher risk for cancer occurrence, according to a new study published online October 26 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
• Book: Medical and Psychological Effects of Concentration Camps on Holocaust Survivors by Robert Krell & Marc I. Sherman.

Grief & Mourning

• Article: Children Who Live in Dread. Psychological wounds of disaster can manifest themselves in behavioral or academic problems post 9/11. New York Times Op Ed, May 3, 2002
• Article: Experts Offer Fresh Insights Into the Mind of the Grieving Child. Grief and loss of consortium for children.

Stress

• Article: Calculating the Benefits of Managing Stress. A Duke University study followed heart patients for five years and is believed to be the first to measure the benefits of stress management over a sustained period and to demonstrate its potential economic benefits.

Neuropsychiatry

Brain Imaging

Dr. Bursztajn was among the first experts to be allowed to use brain imaging in the courtroom to support a forensic neuropsychiatric evaluation and testimony:

• Psychiatry, Neurology, Neuropsychiatry: Dr. Maurice Preter combining Psychiatry and Neurology.
• Article: Your Brain on Alcohol. A new understanding of how alcohol alters brain chemistry may transform treatment of the disease.
• Article: New Clues to Why We Dream. New York Times, November 2, 1999.
• Article: Just What's Going On Inside That Head of Yours?. A new imaging technique gives scientists a map of the brain. New York Times, March 14, 2000.

Dr. Bursztajn has an active patient care practice and consults to physicians, institutions, judges, and plaintiff and defense counsel nationally.