Ethics in mental health research - James M DuBois

Research holds a key to preventing and effectively treating mental disorders, including ADHD, depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse. Yet even as research holds out promise, mental health researchers face numerous ethical challenges. Responsible for ensuring participants are able and willing to grant consent, researchers must also constantly protect privacy and confidentiality. But for so many situations, the appropriate decisions are not so clear. Anindividual with cognitive deficits may have difficulty understanding a research study and granting informed consent, but nevertheless wants to participate. Many studies gather private information about medical records or illegal behaviour that could lead to emotional, social, or legal harm if shared, yetstate laws and institutional review boards may require researchers to breach confidentiality in specific situations. Moreover, mental health consumers and other vulnerable research participants are frequently familiar with historical cases of abuse of human subjects, and may be mistrustful of researchers or fear exploitation. At the same time, researchers are often frustrated when they feel that advocates or institutional review boards erect barriers to research, even while failing to enhance the ethical treatment of participants. Ethical research is rarely simply about avoiding bad activities, and more frequently about how to pursue good research when multiple values and commitments conflict. Ethics in Mental Health Research explores how ethical issues arise in mental health research, and offers guidance to researchers who seek to comply with regulations while conducting research that is at once ethical and scientifically credible. Case studies used throughout illustrate a variety of situations and effective problem-solving strategies. This book is essential reading for mental health researchers, IRB members, and research advocates.

James DuBois is the Hubert Mder Endowed Chair and Department Chair in Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University. He has served on several National Institute of Health scientific review groups, a National Institute of Drug Abuse data safety monitoring board, an Institute of Medicine committee on organ donation, and local institutional review boards (IRBs). His work has received significant financial support from the National Institutes ofHealth and the US Office of Research Integrity.

This compendium of resources is a landmark contribution to the mental health field.
Joseph G. Ponterotto, PsycCritiques, Vol 53, Release 40

This outstanding book on mental health research ethics certainly will become obligatory reading for anyone contemplating research on mental illness as well as anyone responsible for the ethical and regulatory review of such research.
Doody's Notes