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59 - Guidelines for researchers and for ethics committees on psychiatric research involving human participants – executive summary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2010

Sue Eckstein
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

1 The responsibility for the ethical conduct of research rests firmly on the principal investigator.

2.1 In considering whether a procedure is research or not, LRECs and researchers are referred to the Royal College of Physicians (1996) guidelines, paragraph 6.4.

“The distinction between medical research and innovative medical practice derives from the intent. In medical practice the predominant intent is to benefit the individual patient consulting the clinician, not to gain knowledge of general benefit, though such knowledge may emerge from the clinical experience gained. In medical research the primary intention is to advance knowledge so that patients in general may benefit: the individual patient may or may not benefit directly.”

2.2 It is in the interests of everyone that high quality research should be fostered and supported. Ethics Committees (throughout the report, “Ethics Committees” refers to “Research Ethics Committees dealing with human participants”) need to check that the research they approve is of adequate quality. Because of the immense value of research, it is unacceptable that individuals from any segments of the population be disallowed by virtue of their being members of that group from participation in research that is necessary to improve the understanding of disorders from which they are particularly likely to suffer. The difficulties that must be faced in this connection with groups whose capacity to consent is limited are considered further below in paragraph 5.Nevertheless, it is a basic ethical principle that psychiatric patients, like all other patients, must be able to benefit from the fruits of research and, hence, they must have the opportunity to participate freely in sound research.

Type
Chapter
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Manual for Research Ethics Committees
Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, King's College London
, pp. 429 - 434
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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