Preliminary findings on psychiatric patients as research participants: a population at risk?

To determine whether hospitalized mentally ill patients expose themselves to research with high risks more often than hospitalized nonpsychiatric patients, the authors asked patients from both groups if they would be willing to participate in a series of hypothetical research studies. The mentally ill patients did not agree to participate in studies of either high or low risk more frequently than nonpsychiatric patients. Both groups tended to agree to low-risk/high-benefit studies more often than high-risk/low-benefit studies. Although Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores clearly differentiated between psychiatric and nonpsychiatric patients, psychopathology did not correlate with willingness to participate in any of the studies.