Abstract
Psychiatric research has increased remarkably over recent decades to help in understanding the current trends and better therapeutic options for illness. On the other hand, there is also a trend toward higher rates of retraction of published papers in the recent years. Ethics is required to maintain and increase the overall quality and morality of research. Psychiatric research faces several unique ethical challenges. Ethical guidelines are very important tool of research which safeguards participants; however, there is a dearth of such guidelines in India. The present paper aims to review available ethical issues and guidelines pertaining to psychiatric research. A search was conducted on Pubmed using search terms (e.g., “ethics,” “psychiatry,” “research”). Relevant studies were selected for the review after manual screening of title/abstract. Additional sources were referred to using cross references and Google Scholar. Psychiatric research has several important ethical issues which are different from other medical disciplines. These issues are related to informed consent, confidentiality, conflict of interest, therapeutic misconception, placebo related, vulnerability, exploitation, operational challenges, among others. The current paper has made several recommendations to deal with ethical challenges commonly faced in psychiatric research. The ethical guidelines are utmost needed for Indian psychiatric research. Specific guidelines are lacking pertaining to psychiatric research. The issues and recommendations merit a further discussion and consideration.
Highlights
Psychiatric research has increased remarkably over recent decades to help in understanding the current trends and better therapeutic options for illness
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10% of world population is suffering from some psychiatric illness and 25% of person experience some psychiatric illness during their lifetime.[3,4]
Considering various issues involved in psychiatric disorders and research, ethics plays crucial role in protecting rights of persons with mental illness and simultaneously safeguarding the interest of researchers
Summary
Ethics is heart of any research which balances rights of participant in keeping up with interest of research. Unethical medical research has grown over decades. This poses increased risk to vulnerable group including person with mental illness. No guidelines are currently available for this group of population. Psychiatry research has several specific issues which need to be taken care of and researchers need to be trained for these issues. The current paper has highlighted various issues and recommendations, further this opens a topic for further consideration of other research issues in psychiatry as special subgroups (fetal, maternal, pediatric, geriatrics, poor, illiterate, homeless, linguistically distinct), subareas (genetic, addiction, internet based, telepsychiatry), procedures (brain stimulation techniques, pharmacological, psychotherapy, alternative therapy, and meditation) to frame a national guidelines for psychiatric research
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