Download Main Text of CR82 as a PDF
file. (The link above is for contents, working party
membership, executive summary & acknowledgements only.)
Ethical issues in relation to research have come increasingly
to the fore in recent years. This has happened as a result of both
a growing public and professional awareness of the need to protect
people (both patients and volunteers) who agree to participate in
research, and a realization that research developments have raised
new issues that have to be addressed. It is in everyone's interest
that high quality research should be fostered and supported, but it
is essential that this be conducted ethically in the context of
appropriate risk-benefit analysis.
It was against this background that the Royal College of
Psychiatrists set up an interdisciplinary working party to
undertake a thorough reconsideration of the key issues with a
special focus on concerns that apply particularly to psychiatry.
Members of the working party reflected expertise in the difference
branches in psychiatry (including its subspecialities), and in
neurology, neurosurgery, psychology, social work, nursing, law,
philosophy and consumer goods.
The topics covered in the report include: ethical
responsibilities; the scope of ethics committees and varieties of
research; research governance and clinical care; informed consent,
capacity and competence; and the operation of ethics committees.
The report notes the present state of the law but seeks to derive
principles and to put forward practical guidelines for good
practice.
An executive summary indicates the specifics of these
guidelines, the body of the report provides a fuller background on
the reasons for them, and appendices give more detailed
considerations with respect to children's understanding of medical
decisions; decision making and assessment of competence in
individuals with a learning disability; and waived consent for
research into acute grave illness, including unconscious patients,
under emergency conditions.
The target audience for the report includes both researchers,
with respect to their ethical and clinical responsibilities, and
ethics committees, with respect to guidance on the issues that may
be relevant in relation to applications dealing with mental health
and illness issues.