Competence to give Informed Consent for Research Participation in Schizophrenia and Related Psychoses.

Funded Activity Summary

There is current controversy surrounding the ethics of allowing people with mental illness to participate in research. By trying to safe guard what is considered a vulnerable group, we may also be denying these people their rights to make decisions for themselves. The potential benefits of clinical research in an area where treatments are often ineffective and cause serious side effects may also be denied to these people. This study aims to measure the capacities of patients with psychoses to give informed consent to participate in clinical research. The uniqueness of this project is that subjects will be rated as either competent or incompetent according to legal definitions applicable in Australia by utilising predetermined thresholds. We will also determine whether performance of patients in tests of competence can be improved through an established educational program. Additionally we plan to re-evaluate patients after a period of 6 months in order to test the reliability of competence performance.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2001

End Date: 01-01-2003

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $300,000.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Psychiatry

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

ability to provide informed consent | clinical research | cognitive impairment | competence | consent to research and treatment | ethical guidelines | legal thresholds | mental health | psychoses | schizophrenia

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