Enhancing decision-making by depressed pregnant patients.
We provide the reader with clinical tools for enhancing decision-making by depressed pregnant patients. Ethical principles and the concept of fetus as patient support four clinical strategies for enhancing the autonomy of these patients: screening for depression; assessing the effects of depression on decision-making capacity; counseling about the adverse consequences of depression for pregnancy; and informing patients about the options for treatment of depression. These four strategies can be used to prevent ethical conflict in decisions about the management of pregnancy in patients with depression.