Ethical Issues in the Conduct of Research at a Multidisciplinary Clinic

Abstract

We describe the process our interdisciplinary clinic used to create an institutional policy regarding research participant recruitment from among our client base. We demonstrate how certain elements of the client-clinician relationship can lead to inadvertent ethical quandaries in research recruitment, including implicit coercion and fostering of "therapeutic misconception." Our internal policy deliberations focused on five central dilemmas, each requiring a careful evaluation of ethical principles. Interpersonal and cross-disciplinary differences of opinion required a delicate balance among competing priorities. The final policy represents our attempt to resolve these ethical paradoxes in a way that allows us to support and pursue valuable clinician-researcher partnerships while prioritizing both our clients' clinical care and their rights to autonomy and fully informed consent.