[Assessment of legal functional capacity of a neuropsychiatric patient].

Legal functional capacity refers to the ability to make decisions having financial and legal competence. In neuropsychiatric disorders a somatic or developmental brain damage causes psychological, behavioral and cognitive symptoms that lessen the capacity required for legal competence. Such disease groups include memory disorders, brain injuries and disturbances of the cerebral circulation as well as severe mental disorders causing prolonged psychotic symptoms. The assessment of legal functional capacity requires careful overall evaluation of cognitive, behavioral and psychiatric symptoms.