Abstract

The article discusses limits of psychiatric confidentiality as compared with doctor-patient privilege in the broad sense. The author analyses statutory regulations, referring also to the achievements of the doctrine of medical law and applying the rules of systemic and functional interpretation. She also answers the question what is the relationship between the standards provided for in the Act on medical professions and the norms regulated in the Act on protection of mental health. The main aim of the article is to describe objective, subjective and temporal extent of professional confidentiality of psychiatrists and to answer the question whether they are bound by the social responsibility to denounce and how they should behave in a situation when a patient's disorder endangers life or health of the patient or other people.