About PADs
- A psychiatric advance directive (PAD) is a legal document that documents a person’s preferences for future mental health treatment, and allows appointment of a health proxy to interpret those preferences during a crisis.
- PADs may be drafted when a person is well enough to consider preferences for future mental health treatment.
- PADs are used when a person becomes unable to make decisions during a mental health crisis.
Current Research
PubMed Searches on PADs
Use these links to access recent medical research literature on psychiatric advance directives. Each link will open a new window with articles retrieved from PubMed, the National Library of Medicine’s premier bibliographic database. Many of the articles will have abstracts available. Follow the PubMed site links for more information, including how to obtain the full article.
PAD research from 1966 to present
Advance Directives research for the past 2 years
Selected Bibliography
NRC-PAD Bibliography 
A collection of articles from the research literature on Psychiatric Advance Directives and surrounding topics.