Development and Control of Ethical Behaviour in Psychiatric Research

Abstract

Psychiatric research, especially applied research the results of which will have immediate clinical relevance, cannot be done without patients. The sufficient information of such research patients is requested by the Declaration of Helsinki/Tokyo. But particularly in psychiatric patients the validity and extent of informed consent may be restricted

• a) either by the patient’s reduced ability to understand or to consent,

• b) by a therapeutic privilege in respect to a patient’s limited endurance capacity, or

• c) by metholdological necessities, e.g. the use of a placebo.