Review of "Ethics in Mental Health Research" by James M. DuBois

The burgeoning field of medical ethics raises complicated questions for mental health researchers. The critical issues of risk assessment, beneficence, and the moral duties researchers owe their patients are analyzed in James DuBois's well written Ethics in Mental Health Research. Book details DuBois JM: Ethics in Mental Health Research, Principles, Guidance and Cases Oxford: Oxford University Press. 256 pages, ISBN13 9780195179934 Review Only one rule in medical ethics need concern you – that action on your part which best conserves the interests of your patient. ~Martin H. Fischer [1] I wondher why ye can always read a doctor's bill an' ye niver can read his purscription. ~Finley Peter Dunne [2] I recall, many years ago, how I wanted to mail a research questionnaire to the general community, on an issue in mental health. As a faculty member of a large Boston teaching hospital, I was surprised to learn that my "simple little questionnaire" had to undergo extensive evaluation by our institutional review board (IRB). How, I was asked, might this questionnaire affect a recipient's mental health? Would the shock of receiving it in the mail cause some people to become anxious or depressed? How would I protect the confidentiality of those who responded, even though the forms did not require any names? (Perhaps, the IRB opined, some subjects could be identified on the basis of their demographics). I considered our IRB's concerns fussy and obsessive, and to this day, I still do. And yet, examined from within the moral framework constructed by Prof. James M. Dubois in his excellent new Ethics in Mental Health Research, I can understand (sort of) why our IRB raised these issues. Prof. DuBois, the Chair of the Department of Health Ethics at Saint Louis University, is aware that special issues arise when discussing research on those diagnosed with mental illness. Although the book appears aimed at "mental health researchers, IRB members, and research advocates," I believe it will be of interest to most physicians and mental health professionals who struggle with issues in medical ethics. As Prof. DuBois shows with admirable clarity, there are rarely simple or easy answers to the conundrums that arise in these fields. He therefore advocates a "balanced approach" to research ethics, realizing that while the rights of mentally ill persons must be protected, "...research holds an important key to improving the lives of people who suffer from mental disorders." (p. 5). In ten well-written chapters – remarkably, all penned by Prof. DuBois – the entire range of topics in mental health research is covered. The first three chapters develop theoretical foundations for research ethics, including a splendid chapter entitled "An Ethical Framework for Research." Focusing on the Belmont Report (1976–78), DuBois lays out the three cardinal principles of research ethics: respect for persons; beneficence, and justice. The last principle has to Published: 3 April 2008 Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 2008, 3:11 doi:10.1186/1747-5341-3-11 Received: 29 February 2008 Accepted: 3 April 2008 This article is available from: http://www.peh-med.com/content/3/1/11 © 2008 Pies; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.