Ethics: Testing Psychiatric Drugs on Vulnerable Populations

Ethics: Testing Psychiatric Drugs on Vulnerable Populations Ethics is a major issue that needs to be put into consideration when conducting research.

This ensures that the research is conducted is an acceptable way and that the right of the participants is protected. Ethics is particularly important in researches that involve human participants as it protects them from the potential harm of the research process. It is because of this that research proposals have to be reviewed by an ethical board before the actual research is begun.

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2 Case Pharmaceuticals have to go through stages of testing before being introduced to the

market. In their preclinical stage, the drugs have to be tested on persons who are informed about their participation in the research and consent to it. However, as described by Elliot (2014), psychiatric drugs were being tested on poor, homeless and mentally ill patients in exchange for money. Most research participants consented to be part of the research to get paid. Sadly, some went to the extent of using hard drugs such as cocaine to meet the inclusion criteria for the research (Elliot, 2014).

Ethical Principles Breached by the Researchers All the four principles of medical ethics were breached. The principle of beneficence requires researchers to be of benefit to their patients and prevent or not cause any harm to them as per the principle of non-maleficence (Grady, 2017). However, in the case, the research did not have any beneficial motive on the participants. Instead, they suffered, developed side effects and some even died. The principle of autonomy was breached since mentally ill patients cannot independently provide consent to participate in research. Lastly, justice was breached as participants were vulnerable due to their socioeconomic backgrounds.

How the Ethical Issues Could Have Been Avoided For the research, proper informed consent should have been obtained without offering money or incentives to research participants. Appropriate persons should have consented on behalf of mentally ill persons. Also, the researchers should have ensured that the research process does not cause any harm to the participants. In future cases, research on sensitive issues should be approved by ethical boards and ensure that proper strategies are put in place to protect participants (Resnik, 2018).

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Elliot C. (2014). Recruitment of homeless people for drug trials raises serious ethical issues, U bioethicist says. Retrieved from https://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2014/08/recruitment-homeless-people-drugtrials-raises-serious-ethical-issues-u-bioet.

Grady, C. (2017). Ethical principles in clinical research. In Principles and practice of clinical research (4th ed.) (pp. 19-31). Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.

Resnik, D. B. (2018). The ethics of research with human subjects: protecting people, advancing science, promoting trust (Vol. 74). New York, NY: Springer.