Being a psychiatrist in the evaluation process of a gun license report: morally challenging experience – a qualitative study from Turkey

Abstract

Many psychiatrists in Turkey participate in evaluating health board reports regarding gun licensing in their daily practice. There is no relevant study on the experiences of psychiatrists in this process. In addition, there is no other country where psychiatrists participate in the gun licensing process as in Turkey. In this context, the psychiatrists’ relevant experiences, their views on their roles in this process and their understanding of the ethical dimension are considered important issues. To investigate the experiences of psychiatrists, a qualitative study has been conducted. The study included 19 psychiatrists who actively participated in evaluating gun license reports. Taking part in the gun license report process for psychiatrists is a highly challenging experience professionally, morally and emotionally. Psychiatrists resort to various functional and dysfunctional strategies to address problems in this process. However, there are structural and general solutions suggested for the future.

Keywords:

• forensic psychiatry
• gun license
• moral distress
• preventive medicine
• professionalism
• psychiatric ethics
• psychiatric evaluation
• psychiatrists’ lived experience
• qualitative research
• violence

Acknowledgments

This study was part of Abdullah Yıldız’s PhD dissertation, advised by Berna Arda, at Ankara University. For their help on this dissertation, we thank the other members of the dissertation committee, Ahmet Acıduman, Halise Devrimci Özgüven and Yasemin Yalım.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Abdullah Yıldız and Berna Arda. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Abdullah Yıldız, and Berna Arda commented on subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Declarations

This study’s findings were presented in oral session at Annual Meeting and 1st International and 25th National Clinical Education Symposium of the Psychiatric Association of Turkey, 19–22 May 2022.

No funds, grants, or other support were received for this study.

Ethical standards

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Abdullah Yıldız has declared no conflicts of interest

Berna Arda has declared no conflicts of interest

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ankara University Rectorate Ethics Committee (Sub-committee of Health Sciences, approval date and number 22/04/2019-164; 03/07/2020-158) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.