Background: Identify the causes of complaints and contributing factors may reduce medical litigation. The aim of this study was to assess the cases of complaints in the field of psychiatric. Methods: This study was done in retrospective cross-sectional study method. We inves-tigated 27 cases of medical malpractice in the field of psychiatry that registered in higher disciplinary board of the Medical Council of Iran, from 2001 to 2010. We calcu-lated the absolute and relative frequency of variables after collecting all data and calculated the difference between malpractice and exculpation cases based on physicians profile by Pearson's chi-squared test and Fisher’s exact test. P< 0.05 was considered as statistically significant difference. Results: The 24 people who died and their families protested against psychiatrist were enrolled in this study. Demographic information and other characteristics of the cases were collected. All participants had been men. Seventeen of 24 cases (70.84%) were in 30-50 year old group and seven of 24 cases (29.16%) were in > 50 year old group. The most common types of negligence were related to disregarding of governmental provi-sions (40%). The age, expertise and place of medical activities were variables that dif-ferent significantly between negligence and non-negligence groups (P< 0.05). The re-sults of the study showed eight cases of 24 cases (33%) in the lower board, nine cases of 24 cases (37.5%) in the appeals board and eight cases of 24 cases (33%) in the higher disciplinary board were acquitted. Conclusion: Based on the study findings, it appears that age, expertise and activity place are factors that can be effective in reducing malpractice in psychiatry.

Keywords: complaints, medical malpractice, psychiatry

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